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Re:Monster - Volume 2 - Chapter 9




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Chapter 9: Day 81 ~ Day 90

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Day 81

The sheer quantity and quality of the experience gained in yesterday's battle was a great deal, so there were a lot of Rank-Ups today.

Hobuji-kun, a Hobgoblin Cleric became a Half-Saint Lord.

He now stands almost 170cm tall. His limbs are a bit thin, but he is actually quite muscular over all. His skin is a pale white with black tattoos visible on the backs of his hands. He has Silvery colored hair reaching past his shoulders with Golden eyes.

Just like Supesei-san, he has an orb embedded in the middle of his forehead with two 5cm horns growing next to it.

As for his status, it seems that, like Supesei-san, he is a lower sect of the "Lords" category. His race seems to excel in protection and healing. As a test, we had him try healing a slave's wounds. The healing rate was leaps and bounds beyond what it had been before the Rank-up.

He also now had a new innate ability that covers him in a field of light. I tried hitting this field with my regular strength without any added abilities. He managed to hold up well against 20 of my regular strikes. Not bad.

Hmm, its quite a sturdy defense so I have to admit it was a little frustrating.

At any rate it was decided that now he would be called Seiji-kun instead of Hobuji-kun.

The next rank up was Hobufu-chan who was a Hobgoblin mage. She became a Ghoul.

I have to admit that I had a taste of the rotten flesh that she was generating, it was actually delicious. I have to say that it surprised me a bit.

Despite the fact that the Ghoul's body is rotten for the most part, there is still a black tattoo on the pale skin on her face and she had black hair. Her face appeared human at a single glance which I did not expect given that she is a Ghoul. Regardless, she gave off a strong atmosphere of danger around her.

Recently both Ogakichi-kun and myself were pleased with the rapid Rank-Ups of the troops. Though this time seeing the latest developments, somehow a light chill ran down my spine but other than that there isn't much else to say on that matter.

For Hobufu-chan it was decided that her name would change to Gurufu-chan. By the way, she can control her rotting flesh to a certain degree, so she won't turn into a pile of flesh, so that's one worry out of the way.

Hobume-chan became a Dodomeki with a series of tattoos throughout her body.

She stands at about 160cm tall with a feminine body. She has long black hair down to just above her waist, and she was quite a pleasant experience for my eyes if I'm entirely honest. I provided her with new clothes, because the old ones didn't seem to... well.. suit her anymore. I decided on a white kimono style clothing set.

Oh, just to mention, her white kimono-style clothing had an enchantment like [Bio-Sword] but it is [Bio-Armor].

Apparently her race handles a wide variety of witchcraft with the trade off of very low physical capabilities across the board. But as to what her race is fully capable of will have to be gained through experimentation and training.

This isn't all too bad, a wide variety of different classes with me dominating the front and tactics of warfare isn't too bad of a deal.

As for her name, I decided on changing Hobume-chan to Dodome-chan.

At the same time, 5 Goblins, including one that was part of the previous slave unit we liberated, Ranked-up into Hobgoblins.

As for the rest of the Hobgoblins, 7 others also ranked up, most of them aren't really worth mentioning, but 2 of them turned into Ogre Mages. They stood tall and appeared very strong. They had large muscular bodies, with black tattoos, standing roughly the same height as myself. They gave off a hearty laugh and appeared to be perfectly suited to the battlefield.

They were each given a set of large firearms and camouflage clothing. If you were to look at them at a glance, you would be hard-pressed to see them.

They were renamed respectively.

As for the Kobolds, 6 of the common Kobolds became Kobold Footman, the leader who had been the first Kobold Footmen had become a Kobold Samurai.

He was equipped with a kimono and vermilion colored gloves that have tones of black. His appearance was that of a man in his late thirties. He had a sword around his waist, with dog ears and a tail.

It would seem the further that the Kobolds Rank-up, the more human they become. Sigh, the Kobold Leader looks like some old uncle from an anime, this is terrible!

Well... Appearances aside.

His name would simply be the Samurai Leader to me anyways. It seems that he is able to draw from the [Mana] of this world to some extent, and his presence is far deeper than it had been before.

The Samurai Leader's [Mana], according to him, was used for the technique [Noriyuki Tsuji Akikazenotsuji].

By the way, if I were to inquire about [Mana] from the others, I'd be generally looked at like a fool.

In general, from what I can gather, [Mana] is an energy form that is gathered within the body or magical weapons to perform certain abilities and or attacks.

This fact troubled me slightly, but I suppose I've just been doing it unconsciously so I didn't bother worrying about it too much.

After dealing with my main force's Rank-Ups, I sent everyone off to celebrate with the spoils of war.

As for me, I feel it's time to have a word with the surviving members of the slave unit. More than half of them had decided to return to their respective towns, but none of them had requested such things as travel expenses. I saw them off with some food and that was that.

After seeing them off, I went around completing various tasks such as clearing more space in the cave for living quarters and expanding the training grounds. I helped oversee the food getting passed out and provided the cooking team with the cooking utensils that were looted from the human army during our various raids. Currently, no one is receiving a salary, but I suppose if we grow large enough, some members may require it in the future.

After some thought, I decided that providing some wages might serve well to convince some of the slave army to stay and participate in my mercenary group ≪Parabellum≫. For some of them, there was not much of a home to go to, and the others were born into slavery so joining seemed to be their best options to begin with. While hourly wages would surely be expensive, I'm sure some manner of compensation can be arranged, such as payments and shares in the spoils of war during Missions. This way would be far less harmful to the over all funds I have access to. I wont deny my greed in this regard.

Roughly fifty people decided to join:

3 "Lords"

5 "Half-Lords"

4 "Drago-newts"

6 "Half Drago-newts"

10 "Ogres"

1 "Troll"

5 "Lizardmen"

5 "Dwarves"

1 "Dullahan"

3 "Ape-men"

1 "Dhampir"

3 "Redcaps(Murderous Gnomes)"

2 "Tigerman"

1 "Centaur"

Even with the new additions, I still consider the strongest race present within the group to be the Hobgoblin group for stability reasons. Not to say that some of our newest additions lose out in firepower. The Lords and Drago-newts certainly are of a similar degree of power.

It's not a problem since they all joined in separately with no attachments to one another. But the fact remains that alone, I would be hard pressed to quash a mutiny should it arise. More or less, the reason I am in charge is because I am the strongest member of the group. For now, that remains the case, but in the future, I will need to make sure that I remain as such or risk losing control of the group all together.

In practice bouts, the Redcaps, Lizardmen, Centaur, Dwarves and the Lords managed to win out against the lower ranked Hobgoblins, but it becomes an even fight against some of the higher level members. The purpose of this was to develop a better sense of unity with the new members, the worse case scenario would be that internal divisions begin to form. Thus, I want to take as many precautions as possible to avoid such a development.

I took some time to do some training with some of the new members. Though in my opinion, the time spent could have been used more effectively elsewhere. I still need to ensure that the Hobgoblins play an essential role in the group's future, but for now the top priority is getting the new group of fighters acclimated. In the hierarchy of our force, Goblins currently remain the lowest status of fighters, who are treated as training soldiers until they manage to Rank-up.

Next, I was dealing with the complaints of the former slaves group. Of course I granted them my time, but it turned out to be a cumbersome process. It turned into a scene of "I want to lead" and "I want a higher position." This was mostly coming from the Lords and Drago-Newts, but the Half-Lords and Half Drago-Newts also piped up after some time. All in all, the number of the new members from the former slave unit wanting higher positions numbered fourteen. After some minor bouts and diplomacy, the clamor for change and number of upstarts was dealt with.

As for the Tiger People and the Dullahan, they shared a similar feeling that "To not return the kindness of giving us freedom would be dishonorable." It would seem that these people hold the mentality of warriors. I like this kind of attitude more, it's far easier to deal with a professional soldier than it is with lone-wolf types. After coming from the other group where each one of them wanted more power for themselves, this was a welcomed change. Training these people will be far easier than the other group.

I decided to hold some bouts with my upper group of leaders to demonstrate the strength required to become a leader of ≪Parabellum≫. First, up I pitted a Lord with two Half-Lords up against the Rusty Iron Knight. The reason I pitted the Rusty Iron Knight up against these Lords was because the man had already proven he was very resistant to flame damage.

The reason being that these Lords (and "Half-Lords") possess [Wind Lord's Gale] and [Fire Lord's Inferno] which both deal out large amounts of high-level damage. A good compatibility for the Rusty Iron Knight. I was almost tempted to pit all fourteen of the group that clamored for better positions against the Rusty Iron Knight all at once, but I thought better of it. Just these three should be enough.

The fight was enjoyable, but in the end the Rusty Iron Knight came out victorious. That, more or less, put an end to the newcomer's complaints and demands for now. I hear talk now and then from one or two of them, but there shouldn't be much of an issue.

Just then, I suddenly took a full [Wind Lord's Gale] combined with two [Fire Lord's Inferno] from the Lords. Well, I can't say that I killed any of them this time, but as punishment, each of them was beaten within an inch of their lives several times thanks to my healing abilities. By the end of it, their rebellious nature was more or less gone.

"Good," I thought to myself. Nipping out as much rebellious tendencies with as few casualties as possible is what I prefer.

Right after I had finished dealing with the Lords and Half-Lords, I was struck with an ability from behind. I didn't worry about it too much, given my healing abilities. Turning around, I saw that it was the Drago-Newts this time. In an instant, they set upon me with [Thunder Dragon Strike]. Moving at lightning speeds and dressed in a veil of thunder, they each struck me with their attacks with an immediate follow up with [Breath of Lightning and Thunder]. I can say this, they certainly could pack a punch. But enough aside in that instant, I had already activated my numerous resistances and was prepared to take on any elemental strike they had. After taking their most powerful attacks, they seemed a little fatigued but overall still prepared to fight. I began my counter attack, and in a fraction of the time it took them to assail me, I brought them all to the floor. Guts and blood were splattered everywhere with each of them unconscious.

While I was treating them to ensure they wouldn't die on me, I felt a painful sensation from my neck. It appears the new Dhampir was firmly attached to me and was attempting to drain my essence. Using my [Metamorphosis], I prevented her from causing me any damage. With a single swing using [Great Strike] and [Great Swing], I sent her flying in to a wall. That strike was an instinctual response, it probably could have killed more than half of our members and could have probably put even the Rusty Iron Knight down a peg or two. When I turned, she had left a crater in the wall and was embedded in it as well. Her arms looked like putty, and there was blood splattered everywhere. Pulling her out, I mended her broken bones, which from her spine to her skull were completely shattered. Luckily, as a Dhampir, her vitality is unreal. After that, I bit her neck and using my own Vampiric abilities, shared a small quantity of my blood with her. Given that my blood is a powerful elixir, she almost instantly recovered to full health. She looked up to me almost like a lost puppy, without thinking about it I put my hand on her head, and her face turned bright red. With that, she ran off in a hurry.

Once again, I felt a stabbing sensation in my back; the cause was the final Drago-Newt who had been waiting for a chance and had stabbed me in the neck. With my defense abilities all active, it barely broke the surface. I bent my arm around in an instant and grabbed him by his neck. Begging for his life he pointed over to the Ape Man claiming that he convinced everyone else to attack me to subjugate me. Without a second to process this information, I found myself sent flying. The cause was the Ape Man, who had rushed towards me with great speeds and had tackled me. I flew for half a second and collided in to a stone wall nearly 50 meters away. While I was getting back up, the Ape Man was drumming his chest like an idiot. I closed the distance in 0.1 seconds and presented my knee to his abdomen. The vitality drained from his eyes and he fell to the floor. Using a drop of my blood I prevented him from dying, but for this one, I'll let him suffer for awhile.

Needless to say, for now, I've put slave cuffs on the newcomers that had attacked me. Other than that, training went as usual, with everyone at decent levels, the difficulty of the training has been increased for the higher level fighters.

In the afternoon, I escorted the five Dwarves to the smithy to become blacksmiths for us. While each of them would prove to be great soldiers on the front line, having Dwarven blacksmiths is simply too great to ignore. I put them under Blacksmith-san and put them to work right away. The Dwarves were a bit stubborn and their initial work was a bit weak. It will probably take some time before they get used to the environment. In the future they may even begin to produce mithril and magical weapons with Dwarven runes, so it's fine for now.

I took the time to watch over the afternoon training session with Ogakichi-kun. Apparently, the newcomers are still complaining at times. Training under a battle junkie like Ogakichi-kun, each of the lower level newcomers fought in pairs against my Black Skeleton Knights.

After the initial fighting, I called a break and changed the lower teams into groups of ten against one of my [Black Skeleton Knights]. There were some severe injuries, so to avoid any further accidents, I put them in greater numbers to learn about coordination at the very least.

Since all was dealt with, I decided to use something that I've been meaning to try out. Its an ability called [Synthesis]. I've been meaning to try this out for a while, but I just haven't had the time. I took out the Ogre Orbs and spheres that I had confiscated from the Lords and Drago-Newts earlier after I had put them in their places.

Both of these items are rare items that hold a substantial amount of worth. I got down onto my knees and used the ability [Synthesis].

The result was a success, I had managed to infuse the Orb with the [Wind Lord's Gale] ability. I used this ability on some of my equipment and other items. For now this is not a big deal, but who knows, there may be benefits to experimentation.

For now, I'll leave it at this.

* * * 

Day 82

As I have found out the hard way, the cost for using [Synthesis] is quite taxing on the body, both physically and mentally. As a result of my using [Synthesis] yesterday, I found myself falling asleep in the workshop only to be woken up by a very nervous Goblin.

Afterwards I decided to test [Synthesis] further on the orb. In case I risk losing the abilities, I suppose I'll use some of my pointless abilities such as [Minor Damage in Light] and [Sunlight Vulnerability]. Hmm, it seems the weaker the abilities I transfer, the less of a cost I need to pay to complete the process. It seems that the process wasn't a failure. From what I can tell, the process of [Synthesis] leaves whatever abilities that I imbue objects with is irreversible. For now, I think I'll leave the experiments at that until later.

It's still unclear to me as to how the process of [Synthesis] works after my Rebirth. All I can be sure of is that this was an ability I had in my previous life. So far from what I can see, the [Minor Damage in Light] was still present. I had tested this by sticking my finger out in the sunlight when trying to activate the ability. Surely enough, it started to burn slightly.

Yeah, getting sun burnt as if I had a human body did have its funny side. The two abilities were also synthesized into the orb, but have not disappeared. Though even though this has worked, I can't be totally sure of the cost to activate the abilities I imbue objects with, nor the number of abilities I can put into a single object at one time. Well, for now, confirmation that I won't lose the abilities I synthesize into objects is fine. That doesn't mean I won't use caution in my future experiments though.

Today, I decided to leave the training of the newcomers to Ogakichi-kun. I really do enjoy the hot springs and I decided to go with Asue-chan and some of the other girls to relax for awhile. Our current number of man slaves numbers at sixty-two people, adding on to the near countless number of Black Skeleton Knights I can produce, we have a large number of expendable forces. At the same time, I decided to use these people and my own Skeletons to set out to make improvements to this settlement. From building new beds and clothing, to building equipment for the training center and a wooden wall to aid in the defense should enemy forces find their way here and surround the settlement. We've also set out to vastly expand the hot spring to earn gold from Elven tourists. There were other minor things that I won't even bother mentioning though.

The Elves seem to enjoy the hot spring as much as we do. You should have seen their reaction when they discovered we had uncovered a hot spring. The rumor apparently got to even Father Elf now, who visited and requested access to the hot spring. I foresee the hot spring becoming a very profitable venture.

Today's synthetic results.

【Dragon Scale Formation】 + 【Armored Scale Formation】 = 【Armored Dragon Scale Formation】

【Predict】 + 【Expanded Field of Vision】 = 【Ephemeral Eye】

【Pump Up】 + 【Lord of the Mountain's Strong Muscles】 + 【Enhanced Physical Strength】 + 【Enhanced Leg Strength】 + 【Improved Jumping Power】=【Black Ogre's Strong Body】

【Intimidating Roar】 + 【Scaled Horse's Neigh】 = 【Black Ogre's Roar】

【Evil Eye】+【Intimidating Glare】=【Black Ogre's Evil Eye】

【Lesser Damage Reduction】 + 【Lesser Magic Damage Reduction】 = 【Lesser Physical and Magical Damage Reduction】

【Inhibit Regeneration】 + 【Cursed Wounds】 = 【Unhealing Cursed Wound】

Sigh, since the effects of Synthesis is extremely draining, today's experiments ends here.

* * * 

Day 83

Today's morning started off with some training, I decided that I wanted to test out my new Synthesized abilities.

To confirm the affects of the abilities, I decided to take on twenty-three of the newcomers by myself. I chose the members so that even if I used too much power, there wasn't a risk of an accidental death.

The Newcomers that I decided to allow into our ranks

2 "Lords"

5 "Half Lords"

4 "Drago-Newts"

6 "Half Drago-Newts"

1 "Troll"

1 "Dullahan"

1 "Ape Man"

1 "Dhampir"

2 Tigermen

More or less because they had already fought together on the battlefield, their cooperation with each other was pretty good. That said, the decadence caused by their reliance on the Kirika Empire's technology is easily noticeable. Although they have speed, there is too much wasted movement. It's far too easy to read the flow of their movements. Even though I say this, it's not like I didn't get out of it without any damage. There was some minor impacts and the sort but nothing that wasn't recovered immediately by my recovery abilities. After lunch, we paired up, and it became some good training.

Without my abilities activated, I have to admit that handling five of them would have been troublesome. They are quite strong after all. However, I still can't risk testing out my [Origin] Magic on anyone, the sheer power is still far too dangerous and it's almost certain that anyone besides Ogakichi-kun would perish if they were hit by it. Even Ogakichi-kun might not survive if he takes it head on.

That afternoon, I decided to oversee the many improvement projects around our settlement. The preparation of the public hot springs is progressing steadily. Since the war between the Elves and the Humans has settled down, I can finally start using the human slaves for tasks other than war fodder.

...So many possibilities.

* * * 

Day 84


This morning, I woke up to someone calling my name.

I got up from bed and followed the person calling for me to Blacksmith-san's workshop. It is very early in the morning so not many are awake yet. When I got to the room there, in front of me was a pile of items such as mithril, spirit stones and steel. In the corner, there was where I saw it. A single War-hammer, with the Dwarves hovering around it. Upon investigating it, the work was of a more basic design, but the effectiveness of it was certainly above average.

After finishing my examination, I passed it back to the Dwarves.

I did this as a sign of gratitude and friendship to the Dwarves, this action represented me bestowing something that they found worthy for me to wield back on to them, for me seeing them as worthy members of the settlement. For this there could be no greater act of kindness to a dwarf. To me though, I may have kept it if it was a higher quality, but for something such as that, it is best to remain in the hands of a race that commonly uses war-hammers, unlike myself. Of course, after seeing their reactions, I decided to keep this thought to myself.

After giving my thanks for their hard work, I looked over some of their other creations. There was a sword that I found to be of considerable quality that the Dwarves called [Wazamono] (Swift Cutting Blade). Now something like this, you can appreciate.

Even so, conversation with the Dwarves is a little bit sketchy and cumbersome, each of them seems to use a different dialect which makes communication quite difficult. Though, that's not to say I couldn't manage a conversation, I've always been pretty good with languages.

After the normal morning training, I decided to take a trip through the woods, solo.

A forest where there are no more threats and no more chances to fight for my own survival made my heart feel almost empty inside. Like there was a hole in my very being that I could no longer fill.

The days where I was constantly on alert, hunting through the woods with joy, searching for new and interesting things seems so distant, though it has only been about a month since then. Now those nostalgic days with danger have passed, and I am left here, riding on my faithful companion Kumajirou.

Of the number of places I've traveled to so far, I eventually arrived at the Dryad's grotto. I had made brief conversations using my clones because I was always so busy, but today, I came in person.

As usual, Dryad-chan was breath-takingly beautiful. Although I was deeply taken in by her invitation, time was pretty short and I had errands to finish. After I finished collecting the materials that i needed. I spent a little more than an hour... getting reacquainted with Dryad-chan...

Well... I did say I was only going to spend an hour, but an hour turned into two, which turned into 6...

Eventually my stomach got the better of me, and I bid my farewell.

Today, I discovered that one of the humans I spent time with's stomach has begun to swell.

Well, at this rate, it seems my first child is on it's way.

This is pleasing.

* * * 

Day 85

Today's main goal is to increase our efficiency in gathering and processing our food supply.

Dryad-chan came by and helped by manipulating the seeds that I had collected from the forest into various new species of plants using her magic. The effect Dryad-chan's magic had on the seeds was that the vitality, growth of the plant and the taste of the product were all better. I also used Spirit Stones to further this effect.

Thus, today's training will be physical labor in the form of plowing a field for the new farm.

As farming is related to Redhead's [Job-Farmer], I gave her control of this operation and transferred various workers under her instruction.

I enjoyed working up a sweat today. Sometimes manual labor isn't all that terrible.

Today's Synthesis results:

【Armored Scale Charge】 + 【Armored Dragon Scale Formation】 = 【Solid Armored Dragon Scales】

【Improved Slashing Power】 + 【Improved Piercing Power】 = 【Improved Slashing Penetration】

【Quick Thinking】 + 【Parallel Thinking】 = 【Faster Parallel Thinking】

After all the Labor for today coupled with several experiments with [Synthesis], I found myself very tired all of a sudden and fell asleep sitting up in my chambers.

* * * 

Day 86

In the morning, there were several things I needed to address. The first was offering anyone that wished to leave the group a chance to depart with enough to cover their traveling expenses. I took measures to ensure there was no information leakage if they wanted to live out their lives in safety.

After seeing them off, I selected 36 of the prisoners of war who stood out as men of nobility to send home. It's not that keeping them here would cause any trouble for my conscience. Though today the human army is making a full withdrawal from the forest, it's the perfect opportunity for me. I had Dhammi-chan brainwash them with her [Eyes of Bewitchment]. I plan to use them as spies to collect and send me information regarding the human Empire and Kingdom.

It's not like I'm all too keen to oppose either country particularly, but in any case, right now I'm sorely lacking information about this world. Given that my connections to people of importance currently are also quite limited as well. Even though we have won this time, by taking these extra steps, this will ensure that there won't be any hidden failures in the future.

After releasing the brainwashed nobles, I returned to oversee a special training session with my subordinates. Then, training went on as usual.

By the afternoon, the human forces had withdrawn completely. After confirming that our spies had safely infiltrated the enemy ranks, I contacted Father Elf with the communication tool.

After I received the full reward for the proper execution of our contract, we had a little chat. After that, I received an invitation to the [Feast of Sotomash], a festival held by the Elves in memory of their fallen friends and family. This is done so that the dead are free to pass on from this world without regrets.

That evening, I brought a decent number of my Elven followers to the ceremony, while they may be a part of my settlement now, the fact remains that some of the Elves that perished may have been their close relatives. At the very least, I can allow this much. I altered their appearances using [Conceal] so that they wouldn't be identified by the Elves in the village.

By the time I returned with my Elf followers, the feast had already begun.

Ignoring the number of various emotions from both the Elves of the village and my own followers, we entered the venue and passed tens of cows worth of meat, all presented elegantly upon a long table. It was there that I was greeted by Father Elf.

I had left Redhead behind to look over the settlement while I headed out. Both the Rusty Iron Knight and the Female Knight came with me, it appears they wanted to pay their respects to those they had a hand in leading to their demise.

After we exchanged greetings, my party disbanded among the crowd and we all took our seats around the table to engage in light talk. The food looked fantastic, and I could not wait to dig in.

Just then Maiden Elf-chan walked up to me and poured an expensive Elven wine for me, the mood around the table was in fine spirits.

Around the end of the feast, we all gathered around a massive bonfire that had been created in the center of the venue. It was in the shape of a large white ball. According to Father Elf, it is to symbolize the spirits of the fallen and their ancestors, and that by burning it, they may pass in to heaven.

I once had a discussion with one of the Hobgoblin shamans before, he claimed that when you perform funeral rites, that he can confirm the lingering spirits move on.

It was a nice day. With this, the Elves within my settlement should have no more regrets.

* * * 

Day 87

For awhile now today, Asue-chan has been mining, a majority of her time was all in the effort of recovering two gigantic Spirit Stones. Just now, I received a report that she had finally succeeded in freeing them.

Now, more or less a majority of the Spirit Stones have been depleted from the cave. Originally, there was such a variety and quantity of stones within the rocks because of the close proximity to Velvet's Dungeon and the high level of magical density within it. After the death of Velvet and the death of the administrator of the dungeon, there wont be a great deal of Spirit Stones that will find their home within our mines often anymore.

Normally, Spirit Stones are a renewable resource.

Unfortunately, since we've 'conquered' the dungeon, the stones are no longer purified by the magical density. So once we exhausted the Spirits within the stones, the energy ends there and is destroyed permanently.

However, for the moment, due to Asue-chan's efforts, we have managed to extract an awe-striking quantity of all varieties of Spirit Stones. Because of this, I think we can turn down the mining efforts for now.

All of these stones represented a tremendous level of profits to be had in sales and production of magical weaponry.

After brushing away a slight moment of unrelenting greed, I proceeded to consume several of the smaller stones as well as part of one of the gigantic ones. My reasoning was that I had yet to consume these types yet.

Ability learned: 【Photon Ruler】

Ability learned: 【Photon Tolerance】

Ability learned: 【Gravity Law】

Ability learned: 【Darkness Tolerance】

Ahhh, so the names of these two massive stones were the "Light Precision Stone" and "The Seminal Stone of Darkness". Each holding a purity, size and beauty unmatched by any other stones we had yet uncovered.

When I had consumed part of the Seminal stone, my throat felt as if it were a Black Hole. The energies released were intense to say the least. At first I complained because the name "Seminal Stone of Darkness" implied nothing of gravity. I suppose an ability is an ability. I'll have to experiment with it during the training session later today.

After thanking Asue-chan for her hard work, I set out on my usual tasks of overseeing the renovation of our settlement. Seeing that everything has been proceeding according to plan, I made the decision to make preparations to set out. Since I had promised Redhead I'd take her to a large human settlement, I decided I would bring her with me when I set out. The first thing I needed to do was secure a horse-drawn carriage, that much is essential. I could normally use one of my familiars, but the effect on human civilians might have an undesirable effect so I decide against it.

Ah right, first things first, the mass production of Black Skeletons for the daily training sessions. If I am gone for a good amount of time, there needs to be adequate replacements for training in the case that the Skeletons are destroyed.

First, gather the necessary quantity of bones.

Second, construct it's appearance and general form.

Third, form the general appearance and resistances.

Fourth, create the armor and weapon it will use.

After completing this task several dozen times, it was already evening.

After a nice dinner of rice and meat, I called Redhead, Blacksmith-san, the Sisters, and Alchemist-san together. I informed them that within the next few days I planned to escort them to a large human settlement.

They brought up some concerns that the humans might try to expel us due to my appearance. There might also be some who remembered me from the battlefield and would create a scene I suppose. But at the moment, that was the extent of our conversation. I still plan to depart within the next few days regardless of what awaits.

* * * 

Day 88

Today, the guest hot spring and spa were completed.

Overall, everything was calm today. Many of the members of the settlement came to help prepare for the departure.

Although there was a drastic decrease in population due to the loss of around half of our slave labor at the end of the war, if you think about it, it's not really that big of a concern anyway. There was a benefit to releasing them. Less discontent, fewer mouths to feed and spies in both the Kingdom and the Empire.

Things have finally gone back to normal.

For now, I've given orders to stockpile preserved food.

There was some basic training, and I did some odd jobs here and there.

Today, life was quite peaceful. I don't mind a day like this once in awhile.

* * *

Day 89

Tomorrow is the set date that the six of us are supposed to head out on our first trip.

As an added bonus, we can gain experience on the way as we gather as much information about the surrounding areas as we can. But, I have to admit, the biggest reason by far for this trip is because the quality of experience to be gained in this forest has become pitiful as of late.

All that there is to worry about is the destination and possible detection from potential hostile forces. I don't need to worry about being attacked or hijacked, but it would be troublesome if the cart were damaged on the way there.

Of course, I won't be going with just the human girls this time around. Each group will be roughly five to ten people, excluding the familiars of course.

The members are as follows:

The first group is myself, Dhammi-chan, Redhead and the other Human girls, and three Lords.

The second group has Ogakichi-kun, Asue-chan, one Hobgoblin Cleric, three Humans and four Kobold Footmen.

The third group has Burasato, Supesei-san, three Elves, one Human, three Hobgoblins and one Hobgoblin Cleric.

The fourth group has two Ogres, one Hobgoblin mage, two Tigermen, two Dragonewts, and three Humans.

The fifth group has Dodome-chan, five Ogres, two Humans, the Kobold Samurai, and one Centaur.

The choice in personnel was carefully chosen to avoid any conflicts on the way to our destination.

At first, there was minor hesitation to bring along the newcomers after the commotion they had caused several days ago, but after being put through my various methods of ... rehabilitation and... explanation of the hierarchy... I'm sure there wont be any further issues involving them in the near future.

The leader of the newcomer's group was decided by them. Although it seemed to almost be an arbitrary decision on their part, it was for the purpose of not personally choosing a leader. By letting them choose, it makes the person they are following someone they supported, and thus makes them less likely to stir up trouble.

It seems that the next generation might be born before this venture is completed.

Well, that aside. Today is the day before the departure, and I felt like relaxing for awhile. I invited Father Elf to join me at the hot spring.

I took him to the guest section and not the ones inside the cave, I have to keep the image of the hot spring to be similar to everyone. Not that there was that great of a difference, but I wanted to gain extra publicity from this venture.

Father Elf's reaction and overall experience was good, he apparently plans to spread the word of the hot spring to several of his noble friends.

Of course, as an added bonus, some high quality food was also served, courtesy of the Sisters. It was well presented and delicious. I think it's one of my more favorite dishes.

The party was full of laughter and was fully satisfying, especially once I brought out the barrels of Elven wine. Suddenly it became a banquet. Since we had used the external training grounds, we set up a campfire and danced till late in the evening.

The newcomers and the veterans alike gathered around and celebrated a good time, its a good sight to see.

While taking in this sight, I raise my glass to Father Elf,

"Cheers to a good friendship."

With this we drink once more, soon Father Elf departs with an escort I provided, just to ensure our benefactor returns safely during the night, he had consumed nearly as much alcohol as myself. After seeing him off, we set out to clean the area now that the festivities are through with.

Soon I found myself returning to my chamber and falling asleep.

It's been a good day.

* * *

Day 90

Today is finally the day of departure.

I produced some more Black Skeleton Knights, several dozen or so. At the moment, there's roughly 100 Black Skeletons within the cave. So as long as an army doesn't come through, the people that are staying behind combined with my Skeletons should be able to deal with any number of threats.

I've already seen to it that a list of tasks that needs to be taken care of has been left behind and set half of the Skeletons under joint command under several of the high leveled Hobgoblins that are staying behind. Just because I'm gone doesn't mean that the settlement's development grinds to halt afterall.

As for the Elves, a deep rooted friendship has been forged through the fires of war, as well as the sharing of the hot spring, which has become a popular attraction that many elves visit each day for a modest sum. Food is also available for a price as well. Just the operation of the hot spring was left to a handfull of Hobgoblins. Its not a hard task so there's not much to worry about.

It's fine to keep a habit of being overly prepared and thorough.

For the first time in my new life, I will advance out of the forest.

The Grassland and the gusts of wind that lies before us in the open plains was a welcomed sight. I greeted it gladly.

Before us, stands an unknown world.

Our target is the fortress city of ≪Trient≫ of the Sternbild Kingdom!



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