After taking a bath in the nearby waterfall, Akira noticed that his body was much more refined than before. It wasn't like he was a buff goblin or anything, but he definitely wasn't a scrawny little thing anymore. He then heard a loud rumble coming from his stomach, he had not eaten anything at all except for that little bit of mushroom that had been already absorbed by his body.
It seemed that he needed something to eat immediately so he quickly jumped out of the river and started to check for any fruits. While looking around, he saw many beasts that were terrifying to look at. The ring revealed to him the name was whatever he was looking at.
< Two-Headed Viper: Beast class stage 2 >
< Steel Fang Wolf: Beast class stage 3 >
< Fire Tiger: Beast class stage 2 >
He avoided them as much as possible, these beasts were obviously much stronger than he was. Beasts had similar realms as humans or humanoids. From what the ring told him, Akira understood that the human qi refinement realm was equal to the beast realm of creatures.
After wandering around for multiple hours, Akira couldn't find a single piece of fruit or anything like that in the forest. It seemed that it was not the time for fruits to grow yet. After some time, Akira finally came across a bush that had bright red berries.
< Red Berries >
After hearing that they were in fact berries, Akira lightened up a little, although it wasn't much, it was something. He walked over and picked up a berry before putting it in his mouth. Instantly, a horrendous taste encompassed his entire mouth. Akira quickly spat out all that was in his mouth while coughing.
< Goblins cannot eat plants unless they are used in alchemy >
These words made Akira's heart sink. He had been looking for edible plants the entire day and now realized that he couldn't even eat them. It's not as though he was a vegetarian back on earth, in fact, he was a prominent meat-eater, it was his favorite food. However, meat on earth was already packaged and brought to him, he wasn't directly taking a life, to even think of taking a life made Akira want to puke even more, but he had to eat something.
Akira soon wandered into another cave, he was gloomy, hungry, and tired. Entering the cave, he noticed that it went a bit deeper down. After walking for a couple of minutes, he arrived at the main cave room. This place was around 20 by 20 feet wide and tall and seemed to be already taken.
There was a ripped banner on one of the sides of the room and there were patches of dried grass that were most likely beds. There was also a small wooden door that was about a foot in height and width. In the middle of the cave room was an empty fire pit with some extra firewood on the side.
'This... I thought it was originally a goblin home but is something even smaller living here?' Akira thought to himself as he walked over and opened the door. Inside were 3 small goblin babies that looked up to Akira the moment he opened the door. Goblins in this world weren't ugly like described in many novels, these little baby goblins were absolutely adorable.
They looked at Akira and then looked back down at the bone on the floor. The bone had no meat on it and they looked like they were extremely hungry. Just then, Akira heard their stomachs all rumble consecutively and then his own also joined in. He couldn't help but slightly laugh at his situation.
The babies then started to cry loudly. Akira was quite confuzzled as to what to do. He quickly started to make some animals with his hands and the kids cheered up immediately. They were so human-like, no, they were goblin-like. Akira wasn't a human anymore, he was now a goblin.
Akira couldn't help but care for these little kids. He came to a mental dilemma. Should he take the life of an animal to feed these little kids? His answer came to a yes. One life for three, he had no other choice. He made some toy animals with the dry leaves and left the cave to hunt something.
His heart started to beat harder and harder as he realized what he decided he was going to do. He thought of other things like leaving those babies behind to die, but even the worst of villains wouldn't do such a disgusting thing. Akira decided to hide in a bush until a weak creature appeared.
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After about an hour or so, a large female deer appeared in front of him. < Female Deer: Normal animal > After receiving this message from the ring, Akira gripped the small knife that he obtained from the key chain as hard as he could and jumped out of the bush. The deer barely noticed Akira before it was already stabbed in the stomach.
It started to run at full speed while screeching as loud as it could. Its body was much larger than Akira's, so Akira tried hard to hold on to the knife that was inside of the deer. He then climbed on the back of the deer and stabbed it multiple times on both sides of its body. The deer kept on screeching for its life. As blood poured out, Akira was getting more and more impatient.
"Come on! Come on! Just die already please!" He was absolutely traumatized. Akira thought that this would have been a simple and easy kill but it was so gruesome and horrid that he had almost passed out at this moment.
He then stabbed the deer in the neck multiple times as it fell crashing to the floor. Akira was fullying crying at this moment, his body deflated. This was many times harder than he could have ever imagined, but little would he know that this was what he needed in order to succeed.
Although he had gone through an extremely traumatic experience, he now had food for days and for the goblin babies as well. What was done was done. It was time for Akira to bring the body back. After calming down, he contemplated how to bring this large body back to the cave. Just then, another message popped up.
< Ring storage can be used to carry anything up to 20 feet in size. Anything inside will not be affected by the consequences of time. >
This was great news! Not only did it mean that he didn't have to carry many things with him, but it also meant that nothing would go rotten inside of the storage space. With just a thought, the dead dear body was instantly absorbed by the ring.
Akira then made his way back to the cave and unloaded the meat. He cut the meat into jerky-sized pieces and put it on the fire to cook. Making fire wasn't really a big problem since there was flint and steel there as well.
He cooked the meat on a stone slab that quickly heated up as the little goblins looked on. Akira looked like he had almost no emotion in his eyes and he was completely stained with blood, but when seeing the baby goblins he put up a smile.
After it cooked, he gave a good amount to all of the baby goblins so that they would be sufficiently fed and ate a piece himself. The meat almost instantly melted in his mouth. Akira was ecstatic, this was the first time he had eaten for multiple hours and potentially even days. Although the meat wasn't seasoned in any way, it still tasted like the greatest meal he ever had, he would definitely not forget this moment.
As he was enjoying his moment, out of nowhere he heard footsteps coming down into the room. Just then he remembered that this wasn't exactly his cave, and those goblins weren't his children. He simply waited for the person to come inside. Instantly, a goblin jumped inside of the room and threw out multiple rocks from its pocket without looking, it was clearly desperate to save its kids.
Unfortunately, not a single stone hit Akira. After realizing it was a fellow goblin, the parent of the baby goblins was slightly relieved, but he was still not completely okay with the situation. "My name is Garglich and I am the honorable owner of this cave and the father of those children! Who are you and why have you come here?!" The goblin shouted out while breathing heavily.
"Calm down, it's our cave now, and I also have some meat, come and join in if you want," Akira said nonchalantly. Garglich was still suspicious, so he slowly walked over and checked on his kids, they were simply eating some food, he then slowly walked over and sat down next to Akira quietly.
Akira noticed some bruising and scars on his body but didn't say anything. Garglich simply picked up a piece of meat and took a bite. Akira then noticed that he was tearing up a little bit, but then, Garglich immediately fixed himself up and bowed down to Akira.
Akira was dumbfounded. He thought they at the very least would be enemies and he would have to leave. "Thank you!" Garglich spoke. He was clearly trying to hide the fact that he was crying, he didn't want to seem pitiful.
"Thank you so much!" Garglich simply couldn't express his gratitude. It had been days since he and his kids had eaten anything, and he had gone through hell to simply bring back nothing, Akira to him was nothing but a god, a saving grace.
"This humble goblin wants to thank you for saving my children! I am willing to follow you my entire life to repay this favor!" Garglich yelled out while tears poured down his face. "If that's the case, then don't worry about following me, take care of your children, and make sure they live strong and for a long time," Akira said to Garglich.
At this moment, Akira was truly nothing but a holy deity to Garglich. He then picked himself back up and said thank you one more time before going to feed his kids himself. It seemed that he was going to follow Akira's orders wholeheartedly. This made Akira quite happy, he couldn't help but smile.