The Administrator was sitting in his chair, looking at what was happening at the lower world where he sent Arito.
"I know I promised the World's Administrator to send someone at random, but I never thought this guy would be so useful so quickly… His ability to befriend monsters is really amazing… hm? Aah, so it arrived," As the Administrator was pondering about Arito, a ball of light appeared before him and took the form of a young woman.
"Where is… is this the afterlife?" the woman with dead eyes asked the Administrator in an equally dead voice.
"It is, and it is not at the same time. This is the World between Worlds. In other words membrane between universes, stopping them from merging and destroying each other. Miss Leno Hoshino, your death has created ripples strong enough to threaten the very existence of your world. However, we already repaired as much as we could so the only thing left is to decide what to do with you."
"My death caused trouble? That's hard to imagine… even before I got sick I was barely worth my air…" the woman said with a depressed tone.
"You indeed did cause such trouble. The day of your death you were originally supposed to visit the grave of your grandmother and meet with a man suffering from the same illness. One thing would lead to another and you two would give each other strength to survive the treatment…"
"I see… Did he make it then? Found someone else?"
"No. Funnily enough, you think alike and he took his life, same as you. Now I have him work on saving another world—" as the administrator was explaining an earthquake shook the room and high above the two of them a black dot appeared.
"Wh-what was that?" Leno looked surprised.
"Oh, nothing important, just the world hit its reset button due to unbalanceness."
"That can happen?"
"More than you think. The World administrator for example gives the most basic power of the world to just one race, or gender and by doing that sets the world's balance off."
"I guess I've read manga where only women had power before… Did that kind of thing happen here?"
"Yes. The Administrator over there… well, she always was a handful. I guess I will have to collect the administrators again just like I did fourteen billion years ago… aaaargh… that was a pain… Why did that old man even decide to start from scratch? We could've just plop in some people from other worlds, why did he decided to evolve them again, it just took precious time… not to mention that they lost magic in the process…" the Administrator let out a sigh and his eyebrow twitched, "Oh, anyway, what would you like to do?"
"You're asking me?"
"I could reincarnate you to the same world as I did the other guy for example."
"What for?"
"Well… to be totally honest it's a pain. I just don't want to hit the reset button on that world just yet and something tells me that two is better than one."
"Hmm… I guess… if he was supposed to help me overcome my sickness then I would like to at least know what kind of person he is," Leno looked up at the Administrator with a spark in her eye.
"Understand. Now, I can't really give you the same powers as I did for that boy as I used too much energy already, so I will send your soul back in time, you will be around the same age… oh, and I will give you some basic abilities that could come in handy…"
With that, the Administrator touched Leno's forehead and sent her soul down to the world.
"Well, that went better than I expected. With this, the mana shortage will be temporarily fixed and I can leave the rest to them."
Administrator took a seat again and started watching Aritos life as if it was a sitcom to him.
***
I stared at the Hobgoblin and two goblins by the pond's shore. Even at this distance I could pick up their foul body odor that reminded me of rotten eggs mixed with sweat and blood.
"Gob!!" Noticing me, the two goblins, which looked surprisingly human, much more than the other goblins I've met so far, ran before the Hobgoblin and tried to hide it with their little bodies. The Hobgoblin on the other hand shook tearfully.
"Are they… afraid of us?" Blanche looked confused.
"Well, there is only one way to find out. Hey you two, I will cast taming magic on one of you. That way I will understand what you want to tell me."
"Gob?"
"Gob…" the two looked confusedly at each other and then one of them reluctantly came closer so I used Taming magic on it. They understand what I'm saying, does that mean they have interacted with humans before?
"What are you doing here?"
"Chased out… from the tribe… now live on our own…"
"Why were you chased out from your tribe?"
"Big sister… afraid. Hates to hurt others. Others didn't like. Gave chase."
"Big sister, as the hobgoblin?"
"…yes."
The goblins' speech was bad, but not unmanageable.
"This is my territory. You are trespassers here."
"So we fight?" at the goblins' words, the other two flustered and panicked a little. Clearly the big Hobgoblin didn't want to do it and looked ready to run.
"If you all accept being tamed by me like you, I will let you live here. But you will follow my orders. Well, I at least will not force you to fight in exchange, what do you say?"
The goblins looked at each other…
"Okay. You tame us, we follow," the talkative goblin pressed its head against the ground, the two other followed shortly after.
"I'm gonna tame them, is that okay with you Blanche?"
"Huh? I mean… it's fine, but… they are goblins you know?"
"Are you worried about what happened to that human girl? You don't have to, these three are all girls."
"Mmrr… I guess now I need to worry about something else…" Blanche murmured.
"Did you say something??"
"No. Let's get going…"
"Okay you three, follow me."
"Yes sir."
"Okay!"
"U-um, sure. Right behind you…"
The Hobgoblin still sounded afraid, but the two goblins were rather lax.
When we made it to our cave, Blanche used
"Magic…"
"Does that mean the girl is strong?"
"Th-then what about master? He's so calm about it…"
"He must be as strong as her, too…"
The goblin trio was talking to each other so I used
Hobgoblin
More powerful version of goblin uncommonly born in big groups of goblins. Hobgoblin's strength is equal to adult humans with greater agility and tougher skin. Its height is roughly one hundred and seventy centimeters on average. Club user 1, Fighter 1, Regenerate 2, Health 2, Poison resistance 3, Physical Pain resistance 3, Florist 4
The Hobgoblin has Florist skill?! What did it do to get that? Oh, it's a skill about picking, drying and styling flowers. Still, how did she pick it up?! I dried so many flowers and styled them in the dining room to make it cozier… does that mean I have no aptitude for this kind of art?
In my mind came a picture of Flower arrangers and a memory of my time in Kyoto where I once collected inspiration for my work, as well as my failed attempt at doing something similar to Flower arranging.
Right, I should look at the remaining two too.
Gobina
Human-goblin hybrid (female). Society does not classify them as monsters, but not as a people either. This abomination does not have a strong hide of Goblins, but their sense of sight, smell and hearing are stronger than that of regular humans. Can grow up to regular human size. Housework 2, Cooking 1, Sewing 1/Digging 1
So they are human-goblin hybrids… but to think they are not considered either human or monster… As I looked at their statuses, I noticed that while both had Housework and Cooking skills, one had sewing skill and the other had Digging skill.
"Come on in," I waved at the three and led them inside, "This is our main room, you can see the kitchen area in the back and table where we eat. In the back are storage rooms and over there is our bedroom…" As I said that, my eyes happened to meet Blanche's and she turned pink.
"Understood."
"Now, for you… just wait here and I will make your room real quick," I smiled at them and started making a new room with a combination of
"So strong…"
"Amazing…"
"Master is really strong…"
The goblin trio looked in awe at my speed. I made sure to keep my emotions under check as I listened to their praise.
"Oh, before I forgot, if you ever need to relieve yourself do it in here," I pointed at the toilet room and had Blanche show them the ropes. There are still places where men have no right to interfere, after all.
***
"…and that is all that happened," Henretta told everything that happened ever since she got captured in Kassana forest to her rescue by the Ancient boy.
"Hmm… strange, I've never heard of the Aruze tribe before…" Henretta's grandfather, an Ancient himself, murmured as he caressed his long beard.
"If he really lives in the Kassana forest, then it would explain why the number of monsters are still so low there."
"Not to mention why the bandit numbers in surrounding areas are so low. Not like there are that many bandits to go around in the entire duchy, but still. It would also explain the whispers about the Bandit hunter living there."
Henretta's parents added, each of them their own worry.
"Right. I've put off the investigation of that forest for longer than I liked anyway. I will go there right away," Henretta's father, the duke Nomille himself, stood up to prepare for the expedition.
"Oh no you don't," Henretta's mother, a half Ancient with white hairs, light green eyes and light brown skin covered in soft white patterns, stopped her husband with one hand on his shoulder, "it's about to start snowing soon and I think that the investigation can wait until spring. Plus you promised Lena you will spend more time with her over winter training her magic."
"I-I know…" the duke's eyes darted over the room as he clearly forgot his promise.
"Well, let's put that aside. Henretta, you said that he was accompanied by an Albino elf, what did you think about her?"
"Just as you said grandfather. She acted as any elven girl, though I only saw her shortly as the boy, Arito, stood between us when I muttered about her being Albino."
"Did he want to protect her? Hmm…"
In this world, people born with lack of pigment, the so-called Albinofolk, were strongly persecuted against, by others of their race and even other people. The origin of this persecution was an Albino man from one thousand years ago who destroyed many cities in his conquest of the continent. Nowadays however, only a small kingdom remained from his Great Empire on the southernmost tip of the southern continent. Still, there were some people, like for example Henretta's grandfather, who found this persecution to be stupid and borderline barbaric.
"By what he said, he must've lived with humans before which left scars on him," Henretta said holding her left wrist, remembering how tightly she was tied, "before he left, he called humans vermin."
"That's…" the old Ancient gasped in surprise, then nodded and caressed his beard again, his eyebrows frowning all the while.
"Well, let's leave it to that for now," the duchess said and stood up, "We have to prepare for New years celebrations in the capital. Henretta, honey, I know how much you want to repay the boy but it will have to wait until spring break. You need to focus on your studies young lady," the piercing gaze sent shivers down everyone's spine. Clearly, the Duchess was the whip of the family keeping them in line.
"Understood mother. I will at least have enough time to think of a gift for them," Henretta nodded, sweating profoundly.
As the four chatted, they did not notice a pair of blue eyes watching them from behind the doors, "Arito… Aruze…" a soft girly voice spoke up in a low tone before smiling broadly and disappearing into the hallway. No one, not even the servants noticed the girl's sparkling eyes.
"Guess we will meet sooner than expected," the girl giggled as she walked to her room.
***
About half a month after I tamed the goblin trio, the pups left without saying a word. Clearly it was their time to become adults. My worry however soon proved unfounded as they returned not even two weeks later with their mates. I tamed the newcomers and noticed that Shikuro's partner was a Shadow wolf too. With this, my wolf pack almost doubled again.
As we slowly settled down, winter came. To protect us from the cold while collecting water, I dug up a small pond by the old cave behind the waterfall and connected it with the outside. I also made a channel to lead the water away.
With all the time on my hands, I started to experiment with alchemy and it's magic circles. The most basic alchemy have three circles, one for Separation, one for Combination and one for Creation. I tried making antidotes from the Scale frog's poison Sacks and was semi-successful. I made the antidote, but it would lose its effectiveness in two to three days. Deeming it a failure, I decided to throw it away, but one of the Poison slimes drank it from the tank I poured it into. From that moment the slime always stood nearby when I was making medicine and ate any failed creations, which were more common than I originally thought. Only one out of fifteen bottles had longer shelf life than a week.
This has led to two things. My Alchemy skill leveled up which I determined by my medicines becoming more powerful and lasting longer with each batch I made. The slime started to evolve during this time and in two days the evolution concluded in him evolving into Medicine slime. He could create Poison and Paralytic poison in low, medium and high quality, just like a poison slime, and could make Antidotes for both of them in the same three qualities. On top of that, he could even produce Antibacterial solutions and Deodorant solutions. I wonder if he will be able to create more different types of medicine if he drinks other types of medicines. His medicine have longer shelf life because it doesn't use magic in making it, but the effectiveness is lower because of it too.
Given the Poison slime evolved, maybe the other monsters could evolve again too… I never tried to change their diet after evolving. I woder if the Corpse slimes would evolve too, I already have eight of them…
As far as my slimes go, I have eight Corpse Slimes, four Bloody slimes, one Golden Slime, two hundred and ten Poison slimes, one Medicine slime, one hundred and sixty Moss slimes, eighty spore slimes, Ninety Stone slimes, Sixty Acid slimes, thirty four Grime slimes, fifty nine Cocoon slimes, twenty eight Collagen slimes and finally one hundred regular slimes. That leads to a grand total of eight hundred and thirty five slimes.
"Arito, where is Persia? I haven't seen her for a few days already," Blanche said worriedly.
"Oh, nothing to worry about. She was a little jealous of the wolves, so I guess she is looking for a mate as well," I answered her with a smile and finished unlocking another lock on the Sarcophagus. I left it for more than two years. If I had not been lazy about sifting all the bandit loot for so long, maybe I would remember about it sooner.
"That Sarcophagus… it feels somewhat ominous."
"Yeah, I agree. That bat head isn't making it any service either. I tried to transcribe the symbols on the sides and I believe that inside is a monster with vampirism skill."
"Is it okay to open it then?" Blanche walked up to me and placed her hand on my shoulder.
"It should be fine. I have the bloody slimes with me and in the worst case scenario, I will use the Purification spell I learned recently."
"I never expected a bandit group to be able to get their hands on a Magic Tome of Light element, but it was useful, so I'm not complaining."
"Heheh, me too."
"Master… I brought… tea," one of the gobina girls which I named Ursa said in broken speech.
The goblin trio was only capable of saying "Gob, gob" so we took our time to teach them Rishan language. Ursa was the one who showed the most prospect as she was quickly picking up new words every day. Her sister, the lax girl with Digging skill, on the other hand spend most of her time running away from lessons to mine in the old cave. Though, I could really use more magic crystals so I was not complaining. Given her nature, I named her Chika, mostly after one of the characters in my book who had a similar personality. Lastly, I named the shy Hobgoblin Shizu. Honestly, I didn't think the names through much, I just said the first thing that came to my mind at the time. And they like them either way, so no harm done.
Compared to before, the three goblins were also much more human-like than before. First thing first, I taught them about hygiene. Things like washing hands and taking a bath now became common for them. Next thing they learned was that wearing clothes made them warm even when outside was cold. Urza turned out to be quite the fashionable one, as she always decorated her dress with a ribbon or two. They also learned how to cook properly, though they already had the cooking skill, it was limited to roasting meat over open fire. The first time they got to eat soup, they were so ecstatic that they almost ate it with the bowls. And speaking of eating, we also managed to teach them how to use tools for cooking, they no longer used sticks or their bare hands to stir the water.
"Thanks Urza. How are the rest of you doing?"
"Shizu's… playing with slimes… and Chika… mines again…"
"Okay, that's good. I'm about to open this thing so please watch out."
"Understood, master," Urza bowed politely, though I'm not sure where she picked up that custom.
"Yesterday some slimes that were hanging around the bathroom evolved into Cleaning slimes. They are awfully similar to the Grime slimes in their diet," Blanche suddenly started talking about slimes which she usually didn't.
"I was surprised by that too. My guess is that they ate that soap I made with alchemy that stayed in the bathtub after we washed ourselves," I answered as I was playing around with the last lock behind the right ear of the bat face. Ker-chank.
The lock loosened and I easily took it off. "Alright, it's showtime." I placed my hands on the lit and carefully lifted it open. What welcomed me was a dried up corpse of a human woman.
"I-is that dead?"
"No. According to Appraisal it's a magic born monster called Lesser vampire. It doesn't have enough magic and blood to awaken itself. It's in [Mummified] state apparently… that's an easy fix however. The Bloody slimes can supply it with little blood and I can give it the required magic power. I recently learned the Hasten Magic Recovery skill so it should be easier for me to recover… However, I need to do something first.
The magic circle around my hand glowed and I placed it over the corpse's forehead. Once I did, its glow intensified. "Okay. Great. Now let's do the supply. Bloody slime, release some blood on the corpse."
As I ordered the four slimes to spit some blood I supplied the corpse with magic powers. The dried up corpse started to regain its moisture. "Alright you guys get back."
"Uuuurgghh…"
I positioned myself between the vampire and Blanche. As the vampire regained its moisture it's body somewhat grew and changed color. From the originally gray dry look it was now more akin to grayish pink. Its hairs were wavy and gray in color.
"Are you alright?"
"Aaahh… you tamed me?"
"That is correct. I'm Arito Aruze, the one who casted Taming magic on you," I was ready to use the Purification spell at a moment's notice.
"To serve an Ancient…" the lesser vampire's voice trembled.
Ugh, is she displeased? I guess I will have to fight…
"Nothing would made me happier!!!" the vampire jumped and hugged my knees, rubbing its face against them.
"H-hey! Give me some space! What is your name anyway?"
"Oh, right! You've given me your name master, so it's only right for me to give you mine. I'm called Romana Dutka, you can also call me Romi," the lesser vampire, Romi, separated herself from my knees and after making some space between us, she bowed deeply like a servant in old movies. She's a little overexcited, but not hard to follow. I guess she worked for an Ancient in the past too.
"I'm living in this cave so if you have any preferences about your room, you can tell me."
"It's a splendid cave! Master I only need my sarcophagus to rest so you don't need to prepare any room for me. However…" Romi hesitated and pressed her hands against each other, which made her impressive bust jiggle. I could tell that Blanche was staring at me from behind.
"Is there anything you need? Ask me if you do."
"Well, the amount of blood I received was a little to feed me. If you allowed me, I would go hunt into the forest to replenish myself."
"I see, I didn't want to risk my bloody slime's health so I had to stop them relatively early. Okay, you are free to go, but take one of these guys with you to take care of the bodies that will come from this."
"A CORPSE SLIME?!!!" Romi backed off as if she was exposed to holy water.
"Do you have a problem with them?"
"It's not like I have problems with them, as my former master used them too, but these guys can evolve into Necromant slimes! Those things are bad news any time of the day!" Romis face contorted with disgust as she recalled an old memory.
"I never heard of Necromant slimes, could you tell me more about them?" I asked as I put the Corpse slime away.
"I don't know exactly how they evolve, but my former master said that they were a form of Magic user slimes. They could use necromancy to raise undead monsters based on corpses they ate previously."
"Hoh? That sounds interesting. I wonder if I will find out how they evolve one day… will it be hard for you to work with Corpse slime? I could send other slimes with you if you want?"
"No master, it will be fine… I can do it…" It sounded more like she was giving herself courage so I did not interfere as the Corpse slime approached her and they locked themselves in an intense staring contest. Or they would if the slime had eyes.
"Romi, can I use
"Of course master, please do right away," Romi said as she carefully picked up the slime in her hands.
Name: Romana Dutka
Race: Lesser Vampire
Age: 1,018
Magical Prowness: 359,230
Physical Prowness: 172,360
Affiliation:
Combat skills: Unarmed combat 5, Spearmanship 5
Magic skills: Hasten Magic Recovery 9, Magic control 7, Blood Magic 9, Fire magic 7, Dark magic 7, Space magic 5, Poison magic 7
Crafting skills:
Everyday skills: Housework 10, Cooking 10
Resistance skills: Sunlight weakness resistance 2, Mental pain resistance 9, Physical pain resistance 9
Poison Immunity, Stench resistence 7, Disease resistance 7, Health 7
Sensory skills: Night Vision 6, Blood Vision 8, Blood Sence 7
Special Skills: Vamirism 10, Self-healing 7
Unlike with other monsters it looks much more like my status in the book… is it becouse she's a humanoid? But the Gobinas and Hobgoblin status looked like regular monster's… I need to investigate this further… I wonder what decides how the appraisal change.
"Blood magic?"
"It's a Vampire's signature skill. It allows me to manipulate blood at my will."
"Right. The Appraisal spell said that you are a Magic born monster, does that mean you can evolve like the slimes?"
"Yes, however a Vampire's evolution depends on how much blood they drink and how many servants they created. Oh, before you ask, the servants are created by inserting my blood into living beings, forcing them to submit to me, or by having my blood flow into a corpse. As I'm quite weakened right now, I can form a contract with two servants at best," Romi added the last part with a sad bob on the side of her head.
"It's fine, it's fine. Anyway, what can you do?"
"I'm a maid, sir," Romi puffed up her respectable chest as she said this, looking smugly.
"I see, then could I ask you to—"
"No you can't!!!" Blanche jumped between us, "Making breakfast for us is my job. If she wants to cook she can help out Urza and the others!!!"
"Oh? So you are a servant too? I thought you were the lady of the house," Romi raised her eyebrow lightly.
"L-lady of the house?! N-no… I'm not…" Blanche started to look sheepish and with pink blush was stealing glances at me. Which made me break into a smile.
Later it was decided that Romi will be in charge of cooking for everyone and Blanche would help her out whenever she could.