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***
'How nice,' I washed off the blood, dirt, and generally anything else that had gotten on my body during my journey. I left the bathhouse quite satisfied and thanked the man for kindly leaving me alone, and for keeping the others out of the bathhouse. Although the latter were very few (there were almost none).
But my joy was short-lived. I washed off the dirt and blood, but my clothes were not so clean and now I was a little dirty again. The man offered me clean clothes, but I refused, for obvious reasons. It was too revealing and could burn me, conspiracy demanded secrecy.
But come on. It's not that important. The main thing is that they have a good bathhouse, and the accumulated dirt was washed away from me. It even made my dark green skin lighter and brighter. And the foreign odours were also washed away.
It's nighttime outside,' I noted as I walked down the path toward my temporary home and looked up at the sky. It was a beautiful picture.
Two different but similar moons had long ago taken their place in the sky, their light fading the stars. There weren't even any dark clouds. A completely clear sky.
I didn't observe the beauty for long, however. Thoughts of the ring that was now on my finger kept running through my mind. Its description was very strange.
A spatial ring.
A common artefact.
Allows you to store inanimate objects in a spatial vault.
The joy was short-lived. For it was difficult to understand how it worked. Putting it on my finger, I saw nothing in my magical vision. It was just an ordinary copper ring. After evaluating it, I was expecting a miracle of sudden insight, but nothing!
Both magically and status-wise! Obviously, I didn't sit idly by and touched the derelict broom and wished that it would... let's just say - go into my inventory.
There was a silent flash afterwards. It was gone! In magical vision, nothing even happened. There was a broom and there was no broom. After that, the realisation came into my head: the broom was in my inventory, and as soon as I wanted to take it out - it appeared in my hand!
The joy was immense. I almost started dancing, risking to wake everyone with my screams.
Ooh, that was dangerous. But no one came to the bathhouse to check on the screamer. Well, I was glad I didn't have to kill anyone. Even though the light inside the bathhouse was dimmed, it would have been easy to spot the green something. The light somehow penetrated the bathhouse, illuminating the darkness.
Oh, well. When I reached the door of our temporary shelter, I froze with the thought-why not check around the village?
My vision wasn't as clear, but I could still see well in the darkness. I think I could even catch the same rabbit in the darkness of the night. I can see the magic shell. It would be a good idea to replenish my supplies with meat and some herbs, be they medicinal or poisonous, especially when I have a place to put them all. And it would be nice to gain experience on the same rabbits (even though it's so meagre), along with the evaluation skill. Well, why not? I have long needed to raise the evaluation skill, and the time is just right for it now
And I haven't learnt all of my skills. For example... the same skill 'Harem 1', was acquired recently. Which suggests that I've been absent-minded. Heh-heh. I saw that I got something like that, but I didn't bother to check it. I thought it was a joke, and I was in pain. I didn't have time to think. Afterwards, I thought it was just a figurative expression, but it was a real skill!
'Character window!'
Name - Arien
Race - Hobgoblin Mage.
Class - Soul Eater
Level - 13
Experience - 1340/3500
Mana - 440/440
Strength - 20
Dexterity - 23
Endurance - 24
Intelligence - 44
Spirit - 16
Character Points - 15
Skills: 'I Am Goblin-1', "Appraisal-3", "Omnivorous-5", "Stealth-6", "Hunter-5", "Regeneration-3", "Mana Control II-2", "Body Enhancement-5", "Small Mana Regeneration Core-2", "Earth Magic-1", "Healing Magic-1", "Poison Resistance-1", 'Disease Resistance-1', "Pain Resistance-3", "Astral Eyes-1", "Soul Eater-1", "Beast Instinct-3", "Acute Sniff-2", "Zeal-3", "Two-handed Sword-Wielding-4", "Blacksmith-1", "Master's Mark-1", "Magical Sight-4", 'Harem-1'
Evolution - Requirement - Level 15.
Settings.
'Now let's check it out,' I nodded approvingly to myself and moved towards the forest, navigating by my mini map. I wasn't afraid of getting lost, but I shouldn't have gone too far either.
'Evaluation!'
*Evaluation is a success
-40MP
Harem-1(0%)
Free Slots 0/5
Connects members of your harem to the system.
Experience is distributed evenly. Depending on the efforts of the harem and its leader.
Um... a group, a pati or something? That's news to me... can I plug them into the system? You mean - my secret will become less of a secret? Sure... a very useful thing, especially useful when we kill monsters....
I'll have to think about it in my spare time. I don't want to sleep now, but I'd rather think about it later, with a fresh head. Right now, I've got a grind of meat and grass waiting for me. That is, if I can find any.
...
One hour later.
I can congratulate myself ... on my failure. There were no rabbits near the village, nor any useful grass. Although there were plenty of weeds and something that looked like plantain.
Not very useful grass. Not even the same mushrooms! The villagers ate them all! They left nothing around their village! Bastards! Not a single rabbit or squirrel, they ate them all!
In the end, I only trained my mana regeneration scores, but I didn't even raise them one level. And I had to run back and forth for a long time - almost around the entire forest, and it wasn't that big. But I found a running river near the village and some traces of goblins and wolves, which are no longer here.
Speaking of goblins. There weren't many of their tracks, but a dozen of them had definitely passed through here. I even found some fresh tracks near the fences. I'm not much of a hunter, but that was enough for me.
Apparently there was another nest nearby.
Checking my map and the new tracks, I realised that they had come from the other side - from the west.
- Guii! Don't push! - came the quiet voice of a disgruntled goblin in the bushes nearby, forcing me to duck and quickly hide behind a tree.
Whispering, rustling, and grumbling took place in the bushes for a while, and then three goblins (teenagers) wearing loincloths came out. They were holding makeshift clubs in their hands and shushing each other.
- Gui! We need a female! - said the tallest one, to the approving murmurs of his fellows. Sneaking and trying to look stealthy, they reached the wooden fence and scraped their fingers along it, then began to climb over it.
At least they tried to. The fence was taller than the goblin and towered up to two metres high.
- Gui! Sit down and give me a boost!
- Gui! I want to climb first! I did last time! - The fat goblin squealed negatively, and got a flick from the tall one.
- Yours not to work is not to get a female! Or yours to obey me!
*♪ Zing! ♪
Goblin language skill enhanced.
Brushing off the notice, I slowly crept towards the goblins. At the same time trying not to laugh.
Slowly I reached them until I was almost breathing down their backs. The goblins were so engrossed in trying to climb the fence that they weren't paying attention to anything else.
I even had an idea on how to get information out of them. Pulling off my hood, I stood up to my full height so I could hit them hard if I needed to.
- Gui! Who are they! - I spoke menacingly in Goblin. Thus making the goblins afraid. With a resounding squeal they flew down from the fence, forming a pile of mala.
Picking up the cudgel that had successfully rolled away, I became even more formidable.
- Gui! Get off me! Gui!
- Gui! Enemy! The enemy is near!
Looking at the fluttering goblin losers, I picked up the tall one by the arm and pulled him out of the pile, and then punched him in the stomach with my fist.
- Guiihhh! Aghhhh!' he coughed, falling to the ground face first.
Oops, I think I accidentally strengthened my arm....
- Guiiii! I ask again, who are these people? Where did they come from? - I shrieked, kicking the remaining two. And just as accidentally reinforced my legs.
In the end, scattering them on the ground so that they looked at me with fear in their eyes.
- Gui... senior, don't kick, senior! - The fatty squealed, almost shouting. He had to be kicked on the stomach again, forcing him to gulp air with his mouth.
What are you doing, shouting! I'll have all the villagers running in here, and I'll be done with my play! But the other two, looking at their mate, began to squeal noticeably less.
- Guii! Elder...' the second, stunted and bony goblin addressed me, drawing my attention. That one... bowed, holding his head to the ground, and then stared at me expectantly with fear in his eyes.
Yeah... I don't understand these goblins. They squeal like piglets at the slaughterhouse, then bow with fear looking at me. Well, let's find out where their nests are. Maybe they're neighbourly friends. Heh-heh.
- So you're going to talk...gui?
- Gui! Wh-what does the big man want?
- Are you stupid? Did I say who they are, where they're from?
- Gui! Don't hit me, senior! W-we're from the shit-belly!' said the bony one, pressing his head to the ground even harder.
Yeah... what the... shit-belly? Or am I just lacking in goblin language skill?
Looking at the tall one with interest, he nodded his head and ducked his head to the ground just the same.
- That's right, elder! We're from the shitbelly!
'Evaluation!'
*Evaluation is a success
-40MP*.
Kuruk Shitbug
Danger level: None
Attitude towards you: Fear.
Lust-3, Zoophile-6, Crushing Weapon-1, Ambush-1, Stealth-1, Hunter-1, Omnivore-5
Strength - D
Dexterity - C
Stamina - C+
Intelligence - D-
Hehe, that's funny. The tall goblin had starting skills like mine. True, I don't have crushing... and also lust with bestiality. Yeah, nah... I don't need those skills. And spending daily (once every 24 hours) absorption on him is not worth it.
It won't do anything. Okay, let's move on to other questions.
- Where do you live, who is the leader and how many of you are there? Are there any other nests nearby? - and threatened them with a club to make it obvious, and then the verbal diarrhoea started.
They don't live far away. But they don't know where. I mean, they don't know which side of the world it is. Surprisingly, when I asked him which side of the world I got the answer - there in the cave, - and the goblin showed me towards the west.
Figuring out the distance was a challenge, but at least they know about minutes and hours. The goblin said that if you go straight, straight west, without turning, you can reach their nest - a small cave with a population of (the goblin curled his fingers for a few minutes, wrinkling at the calculation) thirty (approximately) ordinary goblins. Armament is shit: spears, clubs, and daggers. You can get there in an hour or two. I didn't believe him completely, but we'll look into it.
Their leader is a shit-belly. A fat, big goblin. The goblin described him in such a way that he looked exactly like a fat-belly. Also, they had a shaman in their tribe!
That's where I got curious. It wasn't hard to find out what the shamans could do. Firstly, they're very clever, literally the brains of the whole nest. But very weak physically, no stronger than an ordinary goblin. They could conjure something, put totems... with spirits or without - the goblin didn't know. But when people came to them, they always looked at the totems while the adventurers were approached from behind.
Yeah. Novice adventurers.
Also, a shaman could heal with herbs of all sorts, make poisons, and shamanise himself something. That's all the goblin could tell us. That's all he knew. Shamans turned out to be those even more secretive goblins, wearing all sorts of clothes, walking with a stick, hunchbacked.
Not much information.
Then they started to ask me who I was, but when they got a slap on the head, they quieted down and became docile again.
Goblins rarely communicate with other nests. For example, I learnt about the last nest we'd killed a day ago. They rarely, very rarely, had any contact with it. But somehow they found out that the nest had recently been destroyed. That's when I got curious, and I found out the following:
The shit-belly goblin and that fatty were brothers, born to the same female wizard. They could sense each other from a great distance. And when we killed him, Shitbelly howled with grief and ordered his goblins to find females to comfort him. They're worn out and only good for meat or 'entertainment'.
Here these three losers were ordered to find females, or they would not be 'entertainment'.
I even wondered how our species has fun. It's one thing in the manga and early books, but getting to know them in person is another.
What they mean by entertainment is... torturing girls. Cutting open the stomach and forcing the female to eat her own internal organs. Dismemberment during an orgy or outright eating. And many other things that a normal person would twiddle their thumbs about.
Basically, anarchy. Not always, of course, but with the shabby ones - most likely.
The goblins marvelled at where I'd come from and why I was asking the obvious, but another blow made them shut up and keep talking.
One female can carry one, or if she's lucky, three goblin foetuses. Depending on the strength of the female. Goblins knock up females every day, with very rare breaks. I wanted to ask about the hoba, but all they knew was 'eat a lot of yudai and be strong.' After some time, a goblin can become a hob or a shaman, it's a matter of how you look at it - a smart one is a shaman, a dumb one is a hob. It was a little different with the champions. They didn't know how to become one.
Too bad. Though, according to the goblin, a wanderer could become a champion, someday. Maybe.
- Other nests, where are the others? Or villages? - I asked the last question, gripping the club tighter. It remained to be seen if their corpses would fit in the ring.
- Gui! Far from our... gui! Villages of people very there, - the goblin pointed behind my back, where we stopped, - still far over there... like, - the goblin pointed his hand towards the south-west... - don't know any more.
- That's it. All right, now I'll help you over the fence. Get your arses up and get up, you're going to climb! - I said in a commanding and slightly loud voice.
The goblins immediately jumped up and, as I ordered, stood next to the wall, looking at me.
- Morons! Not facing me! How are you going to get your backs into the wall?
- Guii! Senior! Gui! - They immediately squirmed and started climbing up frantically, pushing each other. They were more in each other's way, which I took advantage of by coming up behind them and hitting them in the head with all my might, crushing two of their heads. The third bony one went numb with fear and fell on his arse, trying to crawl away from me.
- Gui! Don't kill, big man!
- You can never have too much experience! *♪ Crunch ♪
Experience +60.
It's a freebie. I didn't learn much, but it's enough. Two of these nests is a new level. And if they give me more than five hundred for the boss, maybe another level. Let's see how it goes.
Bending down next to the dead guy, I touched it and the corpse disappeared. Likewise with the club.
Bodies... for a rainy day if I want to eat something.
Afterwards, I decided to pull the corpse out, imagining myself pulling it out. After standing like that for ten seconds, it fell to the ground with a *chop* sound, appearing out of thin air.
It didn't appear right away... well, with a club like. That was a better result. It took me only two seconds for the club to appear in my hand. Apparently, the weight of the item somehow affects the inventory. Hmm... one (fat) goblin weighs 60kg or less (normal), and the club is 5-8.
'Weird... it doesn't make a damn bit of sense. Okay, I still have to allocate characteristics. And to do that, I need to find something to eat...' - Looking at the two corpses, I picked them up in my inventory and moved into the village to the safety of an empty house.
I'll have to eat the corpses, but oh well. Eh, climbing the fence again.
After a while, I climbed the fence and, reaching one empty house, entered it, prepared - locking the door with a chair and crouching in a dark corner.
'Put all points into intelligence!' - I began to drift off to sleep. With thoughts of the future, I fell asleep quickly.
* * *
My head was buzzing with an unpleasant ringing. My eyes were swimming with rainbows of fun, and my stomach was digesting itself. I was hungry, as always, very hungry.
With a flick of my hand, I summoned a corpse in a matter of seconds and tried to eat it neatly. Blinking at the smell of unwashed body odour, I shed tears, but I wanted to eat more....
With trembling hands, I brought my hand up to my mouth.
'Sook, I don't want to eat carrion!' - I finally threw it away and stared hungrily at the floor, so as not to tempt myself with a corpse.
I'd rather eat raw wolves than them. Now that I've tasted fried food, I don't want to eat carrion anymore! I want normal food!!!
*Strong stomach rumbling* - really my stomach was against it and demanded food! Anything, even a dead goblin!
If it's still nighttime... we can go to the girls. There's still plenty of food left there. Even though we sold half of the wolf meat, Aquina left us some for the future journey!
'Ugh... maybe... the corpse can be eaten without using its mouth?' - I tried to encourage myself and touched the corpse. Immediately there was a huge urge to sink my teeth into it and devour it. My head started to buzz even more, and my eyes swam....
*Zing*
New class skill obtained.
Scavenger 1
'А? What?! A new skill... class skill?' - Looking at the mana scale, I used an estimate. The mana scale was still full.
*Assessment is a failure
-40MP
One more time!
*♪ Score is a failure ♪
-40MP
My head... hurts... one last time!
*Score a success.
-40MP
Scavenger One.
Sucks substances needed by the host's body from a corpse.
To use, touch the corpse.
Through glitches and the urge to chew, I touched the goblin with trembling hands. I don't know what happened next, it didn't show up in the magic glitch, but after a while I felt good. At least I wasn't so hungry anymore.
My head felt a little clearer, as did my eyes. My stomach rumbled, as if to suggest that I was still hungry. Reaching forward, I pulled out another corpse and immediately touched it. Then I counted down thirty seconds, and my strength began to replenish quickly. I also tried to catch with my eyes what was happening there, but everything was too cloudy.
But after absorption my eyes became completely clear, even the past turbidity due to magical vision disappeared! And before my eyes appeared dried corpses of goblins covered with bones. However, I did not look at them for a long time.
And finally, having taken out the last corpse, I touched it and looked expectantly at the future performance, fuelling myself with imaginary hunger.
Nothing seemed to be happening. After counting down thirty seconds, I was already disappointed that nothing had happened, when suddenly the corpse began to dry up before my eyes, turning into one like the other two nearby.
In the magical spectrum (surprisingly, it worked), a black as tar tentacle slid into the... goblin's carcass and began sucking something grey into itself until there was nothing left of the goblin and it looked like a desiccated skeleton with skin.
* Zing*
Stealth skill boosted.
Omnivore skill boosted.
Hunter skill enhanced.
What a surprise... I just don't have anything to say.
* * *
Oddly enough, I didn't sleep long.
When I looked out the window, I noticed that the night was still falling, and the stars were still twinkling brightly.
I wished I had a personal watch and had to guess how long I'd slept. I got distracted.
A new skill, the scavenger, came to me just in time. But its name is... corpse-eater... Eh, now I lack the title - I'm a zombie! And then the collection will be complete. Heh-heh.
But... after the third time, I realised how the skill works. Well, as understood - I was given this knowledge or more likely - downloaded through a flash drive into my soul....
It's unpleasant to realise that someone can pick at my soul... At least now I can avoid eating corpses through my mouth... eating those hairy hands... brrr!!!! Fucking hell! Ha ha ha! I was eating hair...I'm gonna puke at the thought!
Oh, I'm so sick. That's what hunger is! And the defence reaction of the psyche. Had I eaten a leg or an arm before? It doesn't matter. I ate it, and then I forgot I ate it. I can't just eat humanoids. There are no people with shaved legs! Oh, no, there are, but they're girls... But to eat them? No, I'd rather fuck them than do something stupidly wasteful.
Brrr. Now I understand where I got the skill 'disease resistance', very useful ability, and I should somehow raise it to the maximum. I will eat animals raw, they are much better than a collection of different diseases, like goblins and humans. Although... there's magic here, and I've already realised that it hardens people as well as a cool vaccine.
I'm not talking about the pleasant smell of the girls and their shining white teeth. The same Aquina has hair only on her head - I could definitely see it while washing her. Elvina is the same way...
But with the men... I don't know. I think those bandits had white teeth, and I didn't look under their armpits. Anyway, the men are wasted and the girls are in your harem! Hoo-hoo-hoo-hoo.
Oh, I'm getting off on the wrong foot again. Are my hormones acting up again? Damn, is intelligence helping me at all? It's the only thing I pump up, and I forget the little things. I'm forgetting to check my status. That's not good.
I'll try to check it after every notification to keep my finger on the pulse. Back to the scavenger,' I grinned to myself, glancing up at the sky and jumping out the window to the street. It's time for me to go back inside - to the girls.
The skill is definitely useful, very useful. It also gives me some perks, raising the level of some skills by one. We can assume that it absorbs the experience of the goblin and passes it to me, if I have any of the above skills.
Here's an example. I did not get the skill of crushing weapons - the same clubs. And if I had it, I could probably raise the level by one? That's probably the case, and it needs to be fixed. I'm sure that in another goblin dungeon I could level up pretty well with a scavenger, and become a master of the head bludgeon!
All that's left is to get that skill....
Hopefully, if I swing the club like a beast, I'll get it counted as a skill? Wouldn't it be better to do it now? - I stopped halfway home. It was a good idea. And such a basic weapon as a club will be very useful with my reinforcement. But there are a lot of disadvantages too....
I looked around and waved to one man (probably sentries, not an easy village. And wooden fences around the village - very strange), that stood in a three-metre high tower and looked at me through the dark night.
Without waiting for his answer, I moved towards the abandoned houses.
If I had time, I should do an experiment. I'll find out how the system works.