"What should I do now?" I asked myself.
Although it had been proven that being in the forest made us stronger, it also came with many risks. Risks that almost cost us our lives.
Beside me, Usagi was calmly eating her fruit salad. In front of me, Rin and Kurama were competing to see who could eat more meat. Needless to say, after Kurama evolved, he was the size of a small horse, so it was impossible for him to lose.
Although I wanted the Monster Tamer skill so that the tamed monsters could fight for me, when I grew attached to them, that plan went down the drain. If Rin or any of the others had to get hurt for me to become stronger, I would feel terrible.
It seems that this time I don't have much choice, I sighed and then spoke aloud.
"As you all know, we've been through tough times recently. Because of my recklessness, we almost died. Given the situation, I think we should leave the forest."
After a brief silence, Rin came up to me and grabbed my arm. Rejecting my idea, she shook her head.
Looking closely, if it weren't for her green skin, she would look completely human. In fact, that would make it even easier for us to blend into human society.
Although Rin is a variant goblin, after evolving, she no longer looks like one. There are many different races in this world, and Rin could pass as a hobgoblin. Although they are descendants of goblins, they are rational. As for Kurama and Usagi, I can say they are my pets.
As if she had read my thoughts, Rin vigorously shook her head.
"Why not?" I asked. "It's safer, and we can still visit the forest frequently to hunt."
Looking into my eyes, Rin had a fierce look. Although she couldn't speak, I could clearly understand her thoughts. She wanted revenge.
"Although you're clearly more rational than before, it seems that your aggressiveness is still latent." In a reproachful tone, I continued, "But don't be a muscle-headed brute. It's too dangerous to keep risking. Besides, I wouldn't call it revenge. We started it."
Despite my words, Rin didn't seem willing to give in. When I was about to reprimand her intentions again, this time it was Kurama who came up to me and expressed his feelings. He shared Rin's intention of seeking revenge.
"And you?" I asked Usagi, who was still calmly by my side.
Pausing her meal, she placed her front paws on my leg and looked at me. While I was expecting her response to be similar to the other two, she didn't take sides. She seemed to agree with whatever my choice would be.
As the most rational being in our group, it is my duty to choose wisely and keep us safe. Standing up, I looked at the three of them.
"Alright, let's think of how to annihilate all those goblins!"
Unfortunately, despite being rational and knowing that the incident was caused by us, Rin and Kurama's feelings outweighed my decision. I also wanted revenge.
After my words, Rin and Kurama became happy. They seemed ready to leave at any moment.
"Wait a minute, let's not go now," I said. "First, finish eating, and then we'll get used to our new strength."
After our evolution, I was confident that we would be able to deal with the goblins. Besides the protection provided by my armor, in the worst case scenario, we could still escape on Kurama's back.
***
Taking a week off, we spent that time getting accustomed to our new physical abilities. This also included practicing riding on Kurama's back.
Despite being about the size of a horse, he possessed much greater strength and endurance. When Rin and I rode on him, he carried us effortlessly, allowing us to attack while riding.
During this time, I also dedicated several hours a day to training the spell Veil of Healing. Since it was already considered an easy spell to learn, with the help of my cheating skills, it took me only six days to learn it.
In that period of time, I also pondered many things, and after this hunt, I planned to explore beyond the forest. With that said, as long as I remained in the forest, I intended to capture more monsters. Since my tamed monsters can collect magical essence, I plan to leave some of them hunting in the forest.
That way, in addition to improving the level of my unique skill, the monsters will collect XP, and I only need to come and retrieve it from time to time. Of course, I also didn't plan on venturing out into the world. For now, I hadn't thought that far ahead.
Regarding the monsters that will stay in the forest, I didn't intend to take all the essence they accumulated. I decided that 75% of the collected XP would be divided among myself, Usagi, Rin, and Kurama, while the rest would go to the monsters themselves.
I know it's unfair, but this way they could level up more quickly than if they were alone.
***
After having breakfast, we embarked on our journey to eliminate the goblin colony. And as every journey always begins with the first step, the first thing I needed was to acquire new monsters.
I would never leave Rin, Kurama, or Usagi behind as a distraction to escape. However, when it came to other monsters with whom I had no emotional attachment, I had no problem with it.
Since Monster Tamer level was 7, I had room to capture four more monsters. For now, to improve the balance of our team, I wanted a tanker and a scout.
For the first slot, I had two options in mind: the fat boar or the thick-furred bear. Without thinking much about it, I chose the bear. There were two reasons for my choice. First, the levels of the boars were low, and second, although there were bears with levels below 10, it wasn't difficult to find one above that.
Although it was a slow monster, due to its thick fur, endurance, and strong attacks, a bear was the perfect tanker.
With Kurama's sharp nose, we quickly managed to find one. But unfortunately for us, while we were beating it up to weaken it a little bit, Rin ended up killing it in the end. Since I thought it was just an accident because she wasn't used to the new strength, I just ignored it.
However, the same thing happened when we encountered the next bear, and when I tried to get a response from Rin, all she told me was that it wasn't the right bear.
Strangely, when we reached the third one, Rin had already given her approval even before the fight began. With our superior level, capturing the bear was easy.
After beating it for a while, Rin grabbed the bear by the neck and immobilized it on the ground with Kurama's help. At this point, all that was left for me to do was to use the sub-skill Calm Down on the bear.
While doing so, I was also offering a lot of meat to it, and it was an instant success. In this way, it didn't take long for me to add another monster to my tamed monster list.
When I checked the bear's information, I noticed that the only difference from the others was that it was female. Having noticed this, I started to wonder if Rin rejected the other two because they were males.
But while I had that doubt, Rin looked at me and puffed out her chest, as if to say, 'Praise me.'
Since I needed a meat shield, it didn't matter to me whether the bear was male or female. Since the female bear's level was 16, it was already enough for the job. And since it would be strange not to have a way to refer to her, I decided to name her Kuku.
They say that when you name an animal, you quickly become attached to it, but I don't believe in that.
Taking advantage of the fact that Kuku was injured during the capture, I used Veil of Healing. The effect wasn't as I expected. I don't know if it was because of Kuku's robust body or because the spell was weak on its own, but I needed to cast the spell two times to fully recover her.
For the scout, the best candidate was a bird, and I already had one in mind, the giant eagle. But it wasn't easy to find. It took us two days of searching before we finally managed to locate and capture it.
As for the remaining slots, they were still open. But with everything ready, we began our revenge against the goblins.