Surata's move-in to the hideout went unnoticed by everyone in the city. It was only after a couple of days that her attendant revealed the news that she had been summoned back to her clan in an emergency.
Both Ken and Surata spent the majority of their time inside Simm's room, ready to attend to her at a moment's notice. Surata's conjecture turned out truer than they had thought. Simm's body was growing weaker by the hour! And the bloodline connection Ken felt with the lives growing inside her was becoming more pronounced in that process. He could now even distinguish the four separate pulses.
As a Super-rank Goblin who focused on combat and scouting, Simm's physical attributes were undoubtedly impressive. At her peak form, she could burst out with nearly twenty times higher physical attributes than the current Ken. But according to her progression panel, the actual numbers of her stats had been moved into brackets, and new, reduced numbers had replaced them. All five of her major physical attributes, Strength, Speed, Stamina, Reflexes, and Dexterity, had hit the lower twenties, barely maintaining her rank as a Super Rank creature.
To supplement for the loss and help her maintain a balance, Surata fed her a personally concocted soup every two hours. The ingredients in it made Ken's pockets empty each time he went out to buy them from the city.
While Surata was distracted by the constant changes taking place within the fetuses, Ken grabbed the opportunity to learn a few new spells from her. Including today, it had been five days since he had broken through to level-2 as a mage. His stats were closing in on another level cap.
[ Class: Mage ]
[ Class Aptitude: Mana Affinity (1) ]
[ Class Grade: Ordinary ]
[ Grade Level: 2/9 ]
[ Level Exp: 078/100 ]
[ Spell Library: Cell Regeneration (Common); Muscle Relaxation (Common); Blood Pressure Manipulation (Common); Blood Temperature Shift (Common); Basic Liquefication (Common).... Flamepalm (Common); Basic Healing (Ultimate) (unusable); Talent Transformation (???) (unusable) ]
If Surata wasn't afraid of harming the children, she would have definitely used higher-grade spells that Ken wouldn't be able to learn or cast. He had gotten lucky in that aspect. His past experience in grinding out experience points played the biggest factor. He could acutely predict when his burnout could be triggered, and he always stopped just two or three spells before it could, resting until the sensation went away.
The only drawback to choosing this path was that he had no way to increase his physical attributes, unlike Simm, whose entire life had been spent in harsh, demanding, methodical physical training that rewarded her with experience points for her physique. Ken's Physical attributes hadn't changed much in these five days.
[ Level: 4 ] [ Warrior Class: Locked ]
[ Exp: 0020/1250 ]
[ Attributes: Strength (1.3), Speed (1.1), Stamina (1.6), Magic Affinity (4.0) ]
The 20 experience points were the result of constantly running these days. Whenever he was busy with a menial task, he could see the progression panel lighting up from time to time with the notification of rewards, ranging from 0.5 to 1 point. But at this rate, accumulating enough points to break through to level 5 might take more than a year.
Unlike humans, most of whom were born with 3 main physical attributes, most members of the other races like Goblins, Orcs, Vampires, Elves, Dwarves, Beastmen, Mermen, and Wyrms were blessed with uncommon physical attributes and talents like Reflexes, Dexterity, Density, Cell Activity, Regeneration, Limb Growth, Artificial Muscle Memory, Breathing Cultivation, Berserker phase, Internal Energy Manipulation, Temporary Enhancements, etc. The attributes of Ghosts, Parasites, Necros, Shapeshifters, and Druids were even more outrageous.
But having too many stats wasn't necessarily a good thing, because they still needed attribute enhancement points to develop these stats. And these Enhancement points that were awarded during breakthroughs were limited and different for every race according to the natural order, controlled by the world spirit. What gave some of these races like Orcs, goblins, and dwarves an advantage over others was the fact that the world spirit rewarded them with much higher attribute points for every breakthrough compared to humans, parasites, and ghosts.
Feeling another headache coming as he tried to cast a minor variation of the Flamepalm spell, Ken put an end to the practice session and slipped into Simm's room. Unsurprisingly, Surata was sitting beside the bed on a tool, going through a heavy, ancient textbook Ken had just brought back from her home.
Simm's expression was a bit strange. When the two of them saw Ken enter, both women focused on him intensely.
"What's wrong?" Ken said, nonplussed.
"I have made a great discovery, one that you will appreciate. In fact, every parent in the world would love to be in the position you two are in right now." Surata's reply confounded him even more. Simm, however, didn't look very pleased.
"Your children have an unnatural level of cell activity, and it's not a temporary phase, little mage. Sufficient to say, their accelerated growth will continue even after they are out of the mother's body. Normal Goblins become full-fledged adults by the age of fifteen, but your spawns will accomplish that by..three years, maybe? So yeah, not many days of dealing with helpless, infuriating, indisciplined brats in your future. So lucky!" Surata sounded genuinely envious.
"Doesn't that mean they'll die quicker too?" Simm growled.
"Little girl, they'll surely be special creatures! How can the outcomes of such a mysterious spell die like a flame? Besides, as long as they can cross level 9 of the Ordinary Rank, their lifespan is gonna triple. No need to worry about them after that, is there?"
Surata's logic was well thought out. Ken knew enough about the Bloodline Extraction talent to predict that their children would be a special breed, certainly not ordinary goblin spawns. It was the reason why he had picked the spell for this attempt to break past the ultimate realm, after all.
"I would have preferred it the normal way," Simm said in a disappointed tone. "I want to hold my little cuties in my arms for more than just a few months. Children grow too fast already. Why do ours have to grow faster?"
"Spoken like a woman who has never looked after a baby." Surata sniffed disdainfully. Ken thought for a moment before suggesting a reasonable solution.
"How about we keep making these babies, then? That way, you will always have your arms occupied by cute babies."
He was kicked out of the room right after by two angry women.