Again, I woke up earlier than the fae, which isn't really surprising as I doubt she got a lot of sleep with the wolves in our house.
I quietly opened the door and headed out into early morning sun, while changing my skin to look like a regular shirt and pants. The rat hide was now dry and needed to be stretched, which gave me the thought to put another one of my new skills to the test. I hadn't used plant manipulation yet, but it was perfect for creating a stretching rack for the hide.
I grabbed a couple of the seeds leftover from the river pears we had eaten and planted them in the ground roughly a meter apart. Using plant manipulation, I caused two small sprouts to grow out of the ground and then entwine at the top. While holding the hide in between the small trees, I caused them to grow some branches, creating sharp hooks to pierce through the edges of the hide and pull it outwards. My small amount of work gained me 2 levels in plant manipulation, and my mana was already regenerating at a fast pace.
"Well, that was far easier than I thought it would be," I spoke while thinking.
"Hnnyaah, What was?" Nyssa sleepily asked.
"Ah, I just used plant manipulation for the first time. It makes stretching the hide incredibly easy." I spoke and pointed at my impromptu stretching rack.
At that time, I suddenly had another idea. I grabbed a seed and again planted it into the rough ground near the stream. Using plant manipulation and a great deal of my mana, I caused a fully grown tree to sprout up out of the ground, flower, and then finally grow fruit.
Nyssa floated there in a daze, watching all the flower petals falling from the fruit tree. "It's beautiful." She whispered very quietly, but with my enhanced senses, I heard even this.
"Now we have our very own fruit tree, and you won't have to go looking for anymore." I said to the still rather stunned young woman.
"That was amazing! Can you do that again?" Nyssa asked me excitedly.
I took a quick look at my mana, less than 30% left of it. "Heh, not for a while, it takes a lot of mana to do, and we should get moving soon if we want to make it to the goblin village today."
"Nn, but you have to show me that again sometime," Nyssa said as she floated over to me.
I hefted my weapon, noting how much lighter it seemed with my recent boost in stats. I picked one of the fruits and quickly sliced it into pieces, handing a few over to the fae and eating the rest. Nyssa ate the fruit with a smile and then took out a couple pieces of wolf jerky and handed them over.
"I don't really need to eat, you know?" I said to the fae.
"I know, but you can still taste it, and food eaten in good company always tastes better." She stated with a huge grin. "besides, I would think it rude to eat breakfast all by myself when you did most of the work."
I simply nodded while cutting off some thinner slices and handing them to Nyssa. "Alright, can you lead the way while we finish eating?"
Nyssa took the bits of wolf meat and stuffed one into her mouth, before placing the rest into storage and shouting around a piece of meat. "Thith waaay!" Before floating off to the north, into the forest.
----------------------------------------
We strolled through the forest together for about an hour with me using my enhanced senses to avoid rats and other creatures that would provide us with next to nothing. We spoke of nonsense mostly, ways to cook food, uncommon uses for manipulation skills, and other such things. It was when Nyssa was talking about using leaves and grass to make a skirt that I heard something strange.
"Nyssa, shhh." I spoke quietly to the fae, perking up my ears.
"What is it?" She said, flying over to land on my shoulder.
There was a strange sound coming from the forest about 50 meters away from us. "It sounds mostly like clicking and grunts with a bit of screeching," I said tilting my head to the side, trying to hear a bit better.
"That's probably the goblin tongue then, but we're still a ways out from where I saw the village."
"Mmm, maybe a scout or an exile?" I asked.
"Proooobably not, goblins are really stupid, this one most likely just got lost and started wandering around." She said with a lopsided frown. "They usually find their way back by smell, but this far out it probably can't smell the tribe anymore."
"So I can kill it without worrying about a whole swarm of goblins descending on me then?"
"Yup, no problems." Nyssa gave me a thumbs up.
I slowly approached the goblin, using my enhanced senses to avoid stepping on anything that my increasing weight would break. My feet were sinking slightly into the forest floor, but that can't be helped at this point as I weigh more than double what I did as a human. I held Thud in one hand while quietly approaching the goblin from behind, it seemed to be rather busy with something and didn't notice my approach at all.
As I cleared the last tree and the goblin came into view, I realized what it was doing.
It was standing with one hand on the back of its head, the other down by its crotch, facing a tree.
It was peeing.
On the tree.
I let out an inaudible sigh at that, as the goblin finished up and began adjusting its rather dirty loincloth. Realizing that it was now or never, I grabbed Thud with both hands and swung like I was playing baseball.
*SPLA-CRUNCH*
Thud was buried partially into the tree in front of the goblin.
I felt almost no resistance whatsoever when I swung. Thud simply went through it and into the tree.
The goblin, now corpse, as if finally realizing its head had been removed from atop it, slowly fell back, away from the tree.
"Uhhhhh." I said while sheepishly looking at a stunned Nyssa.
"Maybe a little lighter next time?" She asked with a disgusted look on her face.
"Yeah, probably a good idea. My strength has increased a lot lately and I didn't realize goblins were so, well, weak." I spoke while pulling Thud out of the tree with a squelching noise. "So, where would the monster core be in a goblin?"
"Well in this one, probably buried in that tree," Nyssa spoke with a small giggle. "Humanoid species usually have them inside the skull."
As I looked at the spot where Thud had hit the tree, there was indeed a hole in the center with a small glittering stone embedded in it. I pulled out my dismantling knife and dug the stone out.
It was tiny.
Less than a centimeter across.
"Is that it? really?" I asked Nyssa.
"Yup! Are you going to eat it?" Nyssa questioned enthusiastically.
Enjoying the story? Show your support by reading it on the official site.
"Should I?" I said holding the pea sized stone between my fingers. "Well, I guess I might as well." And I toss it into my mouth.
You have gained the skill: Novice Sneak
Passive: Move unseen and unheard
You become harder to perceive while actively sneaking for each level in this skill
'Forest Goblin Core' has been ingested
Due to the Glutton skill, you have gained
1 Vitality
2 Levels in Sneak
"What, so sneaking up on a goblin and killing it got me nothing, but eating the core of the loudest goblin in the world got me 3 levels in it? how does that make any sense?" I grumbled.
"Weeeelll, you aren't exactly built for stealth. I think a herd of buffalo could have snuck up on this goblin." Nyssa pointed out while giggling.
This goblin didn't have a weapon, well it did, but it's a stick. Really, not a club either, just a stick. "Nyssa, are you going to watch the next bit, or do you want to head out for a little?" I said as I approached what was left of the goblin.
Nyssa looked to be confused for a bit, then debating with herself, before finally deciding. "I'll watch, it's gross but necessary."
'Is it?' I thought to myself for a bit. 'It's necessary to eat to activate the glutton skill, but do I have to use my mouth to eat it?'
"I'm going to try something a bit different," I said to Nyssa.
I looked down at my hand and began using my mass to replace the hand with a sort of pseudo-mouth, without a tongue of course. The mouth I made looked sort of like a featureless wolf's head. No eyes, no ears, no nose, no fur, just teeth. I opened the mouth which felt rather strange, like opening my hand, but as if my hand were a jaw and could only open and close. I then bit down on the goblins arm, my strength stat seemed to come into play, as the teeth broke right through bone and sinew alike. The goblin arm dissolved inside the mouth and disappeared, just like all the other things I've 'eaten'.
I quickly munched through the rest of the goblin in record time, before finally getting the popup.
`Forest Goblin' has been ingested
Due to the Glutton skill, you have gained
2 Strength 3 Vitality 2 Dexterity
1 Level in Sneak
"Well, that worked out rather nicely, and I didn't even have to taste the disgusting thing," I said while reforming my hand back to normal.
"That was also far less disgusting than having to watch you shove bits of goblin into your face. But still gross." Nyssa said, shuddering.
"I didn't get much from it, so I don't imagine I'll have to eat a lot of them. I wish this one had a real weapon though." I said, hefting Thud. "How much farther to the goblin village?"
"We should make it there before noon at the latest," Nyssa spoke, while looking at the position of the sun. "If we get moving, at least." She stuck her tongue out at me and then started flying into the forest in the lead again.
Chuckling, I followed after her.
----------------------------------------
We had been seeing increasing numbers of goblins for the last hour and a half as we walked. I've now killed and eaten 12 of the stupid things, not having even been seen yet. These things really are dumb, if a 220kg elemental can sneak up behind you, you're doing something very wrong.
The stat gains from the goblins have dropped to almost nothing now, with me only gaining a couple points for each one, and the occasional sneak level. I have, however, managed to gain 12 strength, 15 vitality, 10 dexterity, and strangely enough 1 intelligence. Of course, I also gained 10 sneak levels, which helped immensely when I found 2 goblins together. I actually managed to sneak right in between them, while they were standing side by side. I crushed one with Thud and stabbed the other with an earthen spear that came out of my shoulder.
Modifying my own body seems to be getting easier, either that or I'm just getting better at it. Having a lot of extra mass to move around and create things out of what is essentially my own flesh helps as well.
"Nyssa," I said quietly, drawing the fae out of her third tirade about how I should grow an entire grove of trees outside our home.
"More goblins?" She whispered back.
"Yeah, seems to be a larger group this time, I can hear at least 4 of them from over there," I said pointing slightly northeast into the forest.
"That's the direction of the goblin village, we should be fairly close now," Nyssa said.
A sudden gust of wind from the direction we were looking causes me to wretch.
"Raak, what's wrong?" Nyssa whispered in a panic.
"I think I just figured out how the goblins find their way back by smell." I croaked out, steeling myself against the horrible smell.
Nyssa looked confused for only a moment before slightly giggling. "You're going to have a rough time the closer we get with that sense of smell."
"Nnn, If it gets too bad, I'll just partially block my nose." I don't really want to remove my sense of smell completely since half the time I can smell goblins coming before I see them.
We approached the small group of goblins quietly, as I made full use of my sneak skill. Nyssa simply flew around in the branches of nearby trees, keeping out of sight entirely for the most part.
In a small clearing in the forest, 5 goblins were standing around a rat carcass, eating small bits of it with their bare hands. One slightly taller goblin was wearing what looked like a pair of leather leg guards strapped together on his chest as a makeshift form of body armour. He was also carrying the first real weapon I had seen. A small short sword, or at least it would be small for me, it was in its scabbard and strapped to the goblin's back like a great sword. The other 4 goblins were just like the rest we had seen until now, scrawny and green with sticks or small clubs laying on the ground beside them as they ate.
The large goblin seemed to be far more wary, as before I had even gotten within 20 meters of the group, he started screeching at the other goblins and looking around at the nearby trees. I ducked behind a tree, only peeking out enough to see. The goblins were standing in a circle around the rat, looking outward towards the trees, but they didn't seem to spot me.
I waited there to see if any more goblins would come running at the commotion, but either there were no other goblins in earshot, or they just didn't care.
I calmed down slightly and remained behind the tree, the goblins were in a clearing, so they would easily see anything that approached with them on guard like this.
'Why should I have to get close to them, when I can just lead them to me?' I chuckled silently. I started making scratching noises on the tree I was hiding behind, trying to imitate a rat clawing at it. The large goblin yelled at the others, making them quiet down. Even with the goblins sneak skill, I could hear them approaching the tree I was hiding behind quietly. A very long minute later, one of the smaller goblins peeked around the tree and found nothing.
He called out to the rest of the goblins, and they all gathered around, save for the larger one that was standing slightly behind and looking around restlessly.
That was when the ground caved in, revealing a pit of spikes below the goblins, 3 of the ugly creatures were killed instantly by the spikes, with one mortally wounded. A stone bullet went through the head of the still screeching goblin, and then the rock that was sitting nearby simply stood up.
Of course, that rock was me. I had compressed all my mass down into a boulder and left only a rough estimate of my sensory organs on the face of it. I hefted Thud and took a long look at the only goblin remaining. The thing was still looking down into the pit, and only noticed me once I had closed half the distance.
The goblin reached up to the hilt of its sword screeching loudly at me.
Too late.
I swung my much longer weapon at the incensed goblin before he had even managed to draw out his sword.
*SPLAT*
And removed his head, the arm reaching for the sword, and even the sword itself, from his body.
"Nyssa, can you store the sword for later, please. I want to be somewhere safe when I eat it just in case this new race doesn't take kindly to the metal," I spoke as if to empty air.
"That's probably a good idea, I don't know what would happen if you were out cold for an entire day in goblin territory. Well, you might be fine, when you're sleeping you just look like a stumpy hill." The fae flew out of the trees and quietly stored the sword, chuckling as she went.
I was about to start 'eating' all the goblins I had killed when I heard it, just barely at the edge of my new senses.
"HEEEEELLLLPPPPP"
----------------------------------------
Name Raak Race Alloy Elemental Mass 219kg Str 48 Vit 52 Dex 36 Int 22 Wis 20 Hp 760 Mp 310
Skill List - Passive Level Glutton 1(MAX) Crystal Core 1(MAX) Journeyman Photosynthesis 5 Novice Hand to Hand Fighting 2 Apprentice Two-Handed Weapon Mastery 1 Novice Dismantling 8 Novice Cooking 7 Novice Leatherworking 3 Novice Enhanced Senses 5 Apprentice Sneak 1
Skill List - Active Level Glow 1(MAX) Apprentice Earth Manipulation 8 Apprentice Space Manipulation 2 Novice Plant Manipulation 8 Appraisal 1(MAX)