[Smag’s POV]
We are all exhausted, but we need to run, at least for a day. There’s a chance the governor, a 3rd tier human, would pursue us with the remaining soldiers from the town. I’m practically out of mana and then have only half HP points. Anastasia is nearly out of HP points. HP points measure how much energy is required to heal the body, and going below zero means your body can no longer heal on its own. I actually once had minus HP points, but with my vitality mana, it’s rather easy to recover.
Anastasia has been hit by a holy attack cast by a priest. I don’t know what it does, but there aren’t any visible wounds on her. I mean, ripping out someone's heart will kill them nearly always, even if the rest of the body is completely fine. A very high Vitality stat has a chance to regenerate that, but once again, a really high Vitality. And a lot of vitality will be needed as fuel.
“I got another title,” Anastasia says.
“We need to fix Axi first,” I tell her. This sex is rather weird. Both of us aren’t in a mood, and we are both exhausted. After the deed, we just start marching again. An hour later, goblins’ souls appear in Anastasia’s womb, and I replace one of them with Axi’s soul. I use all my regenerated vitality mana to produce vitality for Anastasia; I can wait a bit longer.
We march the whole day. I want to march through the night as well, but it’s the third day that me and Anastasia haven’t slept. Anastasia just collapses, falling asleep during the march. In the end, we decide we need to rest. Me and Anastasia lay down in the middle, and we tell hobs to sleep around us. The next day, I wake up in the forest, so it seems the pursuit, if there’s any, hasn’t caught up to us yet. On the other hand, one hobgoblin is missing. Oh well. Better him than me. Me and Anastasia split his luggage, and we start to march north.
In the end, there’s a huge elephant in the room. Our situation.
“We need to move away from Fikeral. But what then?” Anastasia asks.
“The same? We train, hunt, and rebuild the tribe. Grow stronger. Try to be happy.” I shrug.
“Sure, but it’s not as easy as you think. The next town to the north is called Rinef. It’s smaller than Fikeral, but that doesn’t help us much. They are going to check all nearby goblin tribes looking for us. Your stunt is going to be the talk of the entire region.”
I think for a while. “We don’t need to stay around the town. Actually, it’s better to stay deeper in the forest. Goblins need females to reproduce. We don’t have such a problem.” She gives me a nasty look. "I meant Axi."
“Sure.”
I sigh. We left two mind-destroyed women back in the camp. Without them, we will need to either rely on Axi and Anastasia or capture someone else.
“Anyway, this should also help us get more experience. There should be stronger monsters deeper in the forest.”
We march for the day, then night, and the next day before deciding to rest. This time, we keep watch. In the next few days, we continue to march north, but we sleep normally every night. We both doubt there is still any pursuit. On the third day, rain falls, breaking most tracks.
“I think I may have a solution to your social problem from the title,” I say to Anastasia.
“Hm?”
“You told me witches and warlocks are very manipulative. What if it’s forced on them? The best way to counter the title is to collect a bunch of social skills with powerful perks.”
She frowns. “I’m not sure I like it. I never have been good at social stuff.”
I shrug. "I suppose that's just like me."
She gives me a look. "You? Bad at social stuff?"
"Yes? Come on! My social stuff is more like a way of projecting strength and ordering goblins. If you were to tell me to befriend someone or outspoke them, I would definitely fail. I'm not charismatic."
"I am also not charismatic."
“It may be your only option, though.” I shrug. “Unless there is a method to get rid of your titles,” I add.
I check my notifications.
You have killed 13 1st tier monsters. You have earned 430 Experience Points.
You have killed 4 2nd tier monsters. You have earned 1800 Experience Points.
You have killed 4 1st tier enlightened. You have earned 1360 Experience Points.
You have killed 1 2nd tier enlightened. You have earned 6100 Experience Points.
Your Strategy skill has advanced to level 30!
Your Sneaking skill has advanced to level 27!
Your Hiding skill has advanced to level 26!
Your Sword Fighting skill has advanced to level 28!
“Anastasia, how much experience are you getting from killing monsters compared to humans?” I ask.
“Monsters are worth more.”
“Then it’s the opposite for me.”
I need to pick a Strategy perk.
Lieutenants II
Create a communication channel connecting up to five of your minions.
Command Range I
Increase the range of your Lieutenants perk’s function.
I pick Command Range. I test it on our next rest, and the upgraded perk now functions up to two hundred meters. Hopefully, the next perk will upgrade it further.
The next day Anastasia agrees to my suggestion and starts unlocking social skills. Debate and Leadership go easy. Intimidation not. I’m not really afraid of Anastasia any more, so all her threats seem just cute to me. Anastasia, after a few hours of trying, finally stabs me with a dagger. That does the trick. I heal it back, so no problem, but it hurts me a bit emotionally.
To compensate for me, Anastasia picks Seduce skill next. This one is also hard for her to get because I’m too susceptible. After me cumming two times, she finally gets it. In the meantime, I ask Anastasia to teach me how to read local texts. It doesn't take me long, as the symbols represent sounds in Earth’s Latin alphabet.
The next day, we leave the ants’ territory. The dominant monsters here are hedgehogs, though the most numerous are actually herbivorous insects. They are the weakest 0th tier monsters I have ever found, giving only a few Experience Points for a kill. It makes sense that the majority of animals are herbivores. That’s how it was on Earth.
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1st tier hedgehogs are bigger than on Earth, having around 30 to 40 cm in length. I have found one of them in the grass sleeping, so I try to kill it for Experience. The monster dies from the first strike, but not immediately. It shoots one of its spines, and it hits me in the chest. Damn. I check my HP.
Health:34/155
Dangerous! With my vitality mana, I can go below zero without much problem and recover, but it hits hard!
You have killed 1 1st tier monster. You have earned 60 Experience Points.
At least it gives quite a lot of Experience Points for 1st tier. After spotting the next hedgehog, I tell Anastasia to shoot it. She does so, and the monster wakes up and shoots a spine in our direction. It flies rather slowly, and it is easy to dodge from a distance. Anastasia shoots it the second time, killing the monster. It seems I was unlucky. Good thing I can heal. Our strategy will have to involve attacking from a distance or with shields.
The real surprise happens two days later. We encounter a 2nd tier hedgehog. This one is around a meter long. To my surprise, it forms a ball, not to defend but to attack. It starts to roll in our direction, and rather fast. Anastasia shoots it, and I shoot Vitality Clot, killing it. We really need shields to fight those hedgehogs.
We continue going north for a few more days until we find a nice, rocky hill near a river. It’s over a week from the battle, and the human stomach starts to handicap Anastasia. We settle down, and I fall down trees around. I buff myself up and create from them a rough fence. It should be enough to stop rolling hedgehogs. That’s my main goal with it. I hope to upgrade it to at least a wooden wall later.
Days pass, and I scout the nearby area in the meantime. Nothing is interesting, just hedgehogs and occasional predators. Interestingly, insects here didn’t spread further, but I guess there are more monsters interested in eating them.
“She is coming,” Anastasia says, lying on her back. It’s time to greet Axi again.
“Hi.”
“Are you alright?” I ask. I know how traumatic it was for her to die the first time.
“Sure. I’m fine now, I guess.” Anastasia gives birth to the rest of the goblins, restarting our tribe.
“We should make another batch,” I say.
She rolls her eyes. “Fine! I know… just give me one day.”
“Sure.” I chuckle.
Axi, to my surprise, goes to a stack of looted weapons. She tries to pick up an ax.
“Can I take it?”
“Sure.”
“Good! Let’s spar!” She shouts and tries to pick up the weapon, but a newborn goblin is only ten centimeters tall. She falls down as a result.
“How about you wait a week first? I mean, I’m happy that you want to pick a weapon, but…"
“Fine!” She shouts. “I will train magic. Hm… Is this our new place?”
“Yep. We need to cozy it up, but it should be fine.”
She nods. “Yeah. I need to help with that as well. I want to form a core as well.”
“Great!” I smile. I would rather give treasure to Axi than a random goblin. “I found fire and air mana sources. I still have your old earth core as well.”
“I want vitality.”
“I can’t give you my core.”
“No, I mean, give it to me the same way you created it for yourself.”
I frown. I can agree that it’s a great pick for Axi. She prefers to be close and personal in a fight, and unless she is going to change her habits, it would suit her nicely. It’s also of legendary rarity. There’s a big problem, though.
“I managed to not explode because of my high mana skills. You should have similar Will and Affinity to me back then, maybe even higher, but you need to have high enough mana skills, especially Mana Manipulation and Mana Infusion.”
I know she only has lower rarity versions of both skills. She can partially compensate for it with higher Will, but she needs to know how to protect her vitals during condensation for it to work.
“It’s not a big deal. You can just resurrect me again in the worst case.”
“Woah! Hold there! I don’t know what happens when a core fails to form. It may even destroy your soul. There’s no coming back from that; at least I don’t know any possible method.”
“How about you make it inside some monster?”
I frown. “I haven't thought of that. I suppose I should try at least. Actually, you should wait at least until you are an adult, and it would be best for me to perform an experiment to check how another monster would react to a similar situation.”
Axi frowns and goes away without a word. It seems she has taken offense. Just what I needed. I go to my new shack. We have enough food for a week or two since I hunted in the meantime, so I can just wait for Axi, or maybe even for Anastasia, to give birth again.
I observe a rat. I fed a rat with earth mana core, then killed it, and then resurrected it. That rat's soul is now inside the pregnant rat I hold now. In two weeks I will have it back, and then I will feed it air mana treasure.
I taught it some tricks with earth mana, like moving soil to defend. This means it should also be able to do so after coming back. My main goal is to make sure feeding it another mana source won’t kill it, so I can do the same to Axi.
I feed the rat mother regular food and place it back in the trap. I sit down and pick up the book I’m currently reading. The books I picked from the guild are mostly about runes, just like I wanted. I now have schematics for all basic mana types and some two-merged mana types. This should probably be enough to upgrade my Rune Basics to the next rarity.
I place books about runes to the side, though, and started to read the books Anastasia brought. They're more interesting and have taught me a lot about the world and warlocks. For example, there’s an explanation of power levels. Each tier has roughly three times more stats on average, which directly correlates with how much numerical advantage you need to fight a tier-up.
1st tier monsters and enlightened should have average stats in the 0–10 range. 2nd tier in the 10–30 range, then the 30-100 range for the 3rd tier, and 100–300 for the next one, and so on. It’s only about average, so it’s normal to have one or two stats higher but the rest lower. I'm a second-tier monster with Intelligence and Will of 68 and 65, respectively. However, my physical stats are way lower. My average is a bit over 37, though, being in 3rd tier category. However, I’m not an average goblin. Just Intelligence and Will I got from being reincarnated with my human mind means my stats are higher than they should be, not even counting my epic race and the stats I got from the Vitality Mana Affinity trait.
Other things I learn about are priests' abilities. They can use prayer skills that heal and buff allies or debuff enemies. They can directly kill, but only followers of the opposite pantheon. The only way to block their prayers is to have your own priest, though. Will helps, just like with any magic, but only a little.
Stamina is working as I expected; now I have confirmation in the books. It's similar to how it was on Earth.
The last two topics are alchemy and warlocks. I will check alchemy later; I don’t have time now to pursue a completely new crafting discipline. According to the books, there is only one way to solve the problem. You need to either contact a Bright God to seek redemption or a Dark God to completely turn into a monster. In practice, you need to find a priest.
Books are for priests, so they are mostly about the best ways to kill warlocks and witches. The most common abilities of warlocks are controlling monsters, necromancy, and ritualistic sacrifices.
Warlocks typically control monsters with social skills that are perked in that direction. They usually only control one or a few monsters, like chieftains, and use their influence to control a whole horde of monsters. Books advise killing the monster leader to break the warlock’s hold on a horde.
The second ability, necromancy, is actually quite bothersome, according to the books. True necromancy can only be accomplished by having the miasma mana type, which is vitality equivalent for the undead. Your average warlock is not an archmage (miasma is a legendary rarity, and a mage with such affinity is automatically an archmage), so they need to manage differently.
Books describe ways a necromancer may create the undead, but in a very nondescriptive manner. In the end, this is a book for priests. Generally, a corpse has to be desecrated, and it’s good if the previous holder died with a grudge. Runes can be used; I assume they are miasma runes passed down from some true necromancer legacy to help with raising and controlling undead. There are also lesser mana types, at least compared to miasma, that can help with both.
As for destroying the undead, books recommend using order mana, or any higher-tier, similar mana type based on order, besides priests’ skills.
The last part is about sacrificing souls to Dark Gods. Unfortunately for me, there are no runes described. Not like I want to sacrifice souls, but soul runes could be of great help to me in studying souls. The book mostly describes how to look for possible warlocks and how to recognize the sacrifice altar. Generally, how to find and kill warlocks and witches.
[Anastasia’s POV]
Axi jumps up on me. I’m currently lying in a shack. She is so small that she can easily sit on me.
“What’s up?”
“It’s Smag!” She lies down and hugs me.
“What do you mean?”
“You know!” She screams. “I want to fight again, but he just told me I’m too weak!” I take a better look at her and notice she is crying.
“It’s not that!” I deny. “He is worried about you. We don’t want you to die again. It’s better to wait until your body is adult again.” I say, but honestly, her mind is probably a bit childish as well. It’s not because she is too young and underdeveloped, but because she is too young and inexperienced. Smag has his memories from being a warlock, even if they are incomplete.
“So I’m too weak to survive.” She says.
“No!” I sigh. “Axi, you are strong, but that doesn’t mean you need to always tackle danger head-on. Remember the wolves you led us to fight? That fight only three of us returned, and wounded at that?”
“Yeah.”
“We told you after that fight you had been too reckless. You are now also too reckless. Wait two weeks; get us shields in the meantime. You can absorb a core and wait a bit more while leveling your skills as well.”
“But I don’t want to! I need to do so now!”
“Hey! Me and Smag cover your back. You know it. There’s really no need to push yourself so hard right now.”
“Shut up! You are just the same!” She shouts and runs off. I sigh. What should I do about it?