The spiders' attack caught me off guard, but it helped me to see that this hut is not secure, other monsters might come attacking.
"Ahhh" (I)
I'm in a lot of pain where the Spider bit me, but little by little the pain lessens.
Ding!
<[ Your skill leveled up [ Low Poison Resistance: 4 > 5 ] ]>
"..." (I)
"(It looks like I was poisoned by the spider's bite, I'll let my resistance skill take care of the poison, I'll try to heal this wound now.)" (I)
I start using my skill [ Weak Recovery: 5 ] a few times to heal the bite wound, after four uses of the skill the wound is completely closed.
Ding!
<[ Your skill leveled up [ Weak Recovery: 5 > 6 ] ]>
Thanks to this attack I finally realized that I never tried to know much about this forest and the monsters that live in it.
Ibuki once told me that the ruins were dangerous and the smartest monsters kept away from them, she also told me that there were other Goblin families scattered throughout the forest.
"(I have to find out more about monsters such as their territories, how many races they have and their strength level in this forest.)" (I)
I had to have looked for this information before, but with so much going on and so much I had to do I just let it go.
There's not much I can do until the girls get back from the hunt, so I decide to wait, use my production skills and line control to make a hammock for me to lie down on and rest while I wait.
-------------
A few hours later Érica and Ibuki open the gate, I go to them to see how the hunt went and explain about the spiders.
"Hi Érica, you guys got back early." (I)
"Hi master." (Érica)
"How was the hunt? Looks like you guys are pretty tired." (I)
"I must apologize master." (Érica)
"What are you apologizing for?" (I)
"We couldn't even make it to the bat cave, we encountered a lot of Kobolds and wolves on the way." (Érica)
"Probably their territory is on the way to the bat cave." (Érica)
"When the storage items we took were full we decided to come back." (Érica)
"Don't worry about it, at least they'll fix the food problem for a few days." (I)
"And don't worry about bats, I can hunt them anytime I want." (I)
"I also have something I have to talk to you about." (I)
"Do you see those cocoons over there?" (I)
"Yes Master." (Érica)
I point to the cocoons trapping the spiders still alive.
"These are the spiders that invaded while I was training alone, they climbed the camp wall." (I)
"..." (Érica)
"The master took care of them all by himself?" (Érica)
"You're alright, aren't you hurt?" (Érica)
"Do not worry, I'm fine." (I)
"They are still alive, I only killed a few during the fight." (I)
I walk towards the hammock and do two more next to mine for the girls.
"Come on the hammock you too, get some rest." (I)
"Tell me the results of the hunt for you two, how was it?" (I)
"Master we have ten corpses, four Kobolds, and six Gray Wolves." (Érica)
"Since the storage items were full we decided to go back as we didn't want to discard any bodies." (Érica)
"You did well, take them to the cave and wait there, I'll ask Ibuki to finish off these spiders before I meet you in the cave." (I)
"Why didn't the master kill them all? Why bother arresting them until we get here?" (Érica)
"Because I don't want to gain EXP now, I don't want to evolve until I finish my preparations, as I don't know when I'll be forced by the situation to kill a monster or someone I'll avoid while I can." (I)
"I don't understand why you don't want to evolve yet, but if that's what you've decided, that's fine." (Érica)
I see Érica going to the cave, as soon as I see her enter I turn to face Ibuki who looks sad, I start talking to her in Goblin language.
"Why are you with that sad face Ibuki?" (I)
"I couldn't carry out the master's orders, Ibuki is still useless." (Ibuki)
I see tears welling in the corners of Ibuki's eyes, and I reach over and start stroking her head.
"No need to cry Ibuki." (I)
"I don't think you're useless, I never did." (I)
"But I can't be as useful to the master as the others." (Ibuki)
Sniff Sniff
"I couldn't even hunt the monster the master wanted." (Ibuki)
"Don't worry about it, there will be other opportunities to hunt." (I)
"Each one of you is good at something, there are no useless people just unwilling people, remember that." (I)
"Of all of you, you are the one with the greatest desire to help and become stronger." (I)
"I see you making an effort every day to learn from Érica, and every night with your training, so more than anyone I know how hard you work." (I)
Sniff Sniff
"I never want you to say it's useless again, okay?" (I)
"Alright master." (Ibuki)
Sniff Sniff
I stop stroking her head and start wiping her tears away with my fingers.
"(She reminds me a lot of the children at the orphanage, it's a shame for someone like her to have to go through situations of death and hunger, but she has to continue in order to become strong, I'll do what I can to help her, after all this world it's not as safe as my old world.)" (I)
"Come with me Ibuki, there are some spiders for you to kill, this will give you some EXP." (I)
"It's OK." (Ibuki)
I go with Ibuki to the pods and use my sword to cut the pods a bit so Ibuki can kill the spiders more easily, then I drink this disgusting goo again.
Ding! Ding!
<[ You gained 11 EXP for killing Little Spiders per party member ]>
.
.
.
<[ Your bloodline has become stronger and purer [ Little Spider: 11% > 17% ] ]>
After that Ibuki and I go to the cave to meet Érica, when we reach the cave I see ten monster corpses lined up, their wounds are seared, I don't even need to ask to know Érica did this to keep as much of the blood as possible for me to drink.
"These are all master monsters." (Érica)
"Thank you Érica." (I)
I go to the monsters and start drinking the blood one by one until they are all dry.
Ding! Ding! Ding!
<[ Your skill leveled up [ Leech: 8 > 9 ] ]>
.
.
<[ Your skill leveled up [ Leech Belly: 9 > 10 ] ]>
.
.
.
<[ Your bloodline has become stronger and purer [ Gray Wolf: 53% > 100% ] ]>
.
.
<[ Your bloodline has become stronger and purer [ Kobold: 24% > 72% ] ]>
With that I have another pure bloodline, now I think I'll dismantle these corpses to get the materials that will be useful to me.
"Érica, I imagine you don't know how to separate materials from monsters, do you?" (I)
"I don't know master, Diana always told me I should learn, she said that this is a great way to reduce weight when you have a lot of corpses to take, that you only have to look at what's useful." (Érica)
"What is useful in these two monsters?" (I)
"The most valuable part of any monster is its cores, but most monsters below Rank D don't have a core and if they do it will be a very weak one." (Érica)
"Apart from the cores, since both monsters have fur, we can take them out for sale, merchants and artisans love these things, they can make clothes, rugs or blankets out of them." (Érica)
"The proof of their subjugation is their canine teeth, other than that, wolf meat can be consumed by anyone, but Kobold meat is as unpalatable as Goblin meat, other than that I don't think there's anything else." (Érica)
"(There are some things I didn't understand about her explanation, I think I'd better take the time and ask.)" (I)
"What are cores?" (I)
"..." (Érica)
"I'm sorry master, I forgot to teach you about this, as you are and so smart I forget that it lacks some common knowledge because you are a monster." (Érica)
"The cores are the coagulated form of energy, as such there are three types, Ki Cores are found in the hearts of monsters, Magic Cores are found in the monsters' heads, and Spirit Cores are found in their abdomens." (Érica)
"The cores are divided into the same category as monsters but in a more simplified way." (Érica)
"For starters, monsters are ranked from -H > H > +H > - G > G... and so on up to +A, after that comes the truly feared monsters that don't matter now." (Érica)
"As I said before, the classification of nuclei is simple bad being H > G > F > E... and so on as well." (Érica)
"Have you managed to understand so far master?" (Érica)
"Yeah, but you said it's hard to find cores in monsters below Rank D, why?" (I)
"That's because the nuclei only appear after the monster's death, when the monster dies its energy is released back to the world, if it's too much energy it coagulates and crystallizes into a nucleus." (Érica)
"The problem arises at this point, the weaker the monster the less energy it has so the energy goes back to the world without coagulating, in turn as the monster's rank increases the chances of getting cores to become higher, from Rank C almost all monsters will have cores." (Érica)
"So nuclei only appear after death?" (I)
"Yes, but there are some exceptions for monsters that have cores from birth, such as Golems, Slimes, Elementals, and Undead." (Érica)
"These monsters have cores from birth, because these cores act like their hearts, without those cores they die, that's why they are also your weak points, all are problematic enemies to defeat without aiming at their cores." (Érica)
"I think I understand." (I)
"Now let's eat, then we'll come back here to try and dismantle these monsters, I want to use their fur to make blankets for us." (I)
With that, I cut some wolf meat and leave the cave with the girls so we can roast the meat to eat.