Strength: 161,621
Magic: 82,051
Spirit: 84,701
Agility: 136,041
Skills: Gluttony, Identify, Telepathy, Conceal, Night Vision, One-Handed Sword Technique, Two-Handed Sword Technique, Strength Boost (Low), Strength Boost (Medium), Vitality Boost (Low), Vitality Boost (Medium), Agility Boost (Medium), Health Regen
I was creeping toward the crowned kobold’s stats. One more kobold warrior, and we would be about even.
I headed back toward the ravine and the waiting crowned kobold, this time by a different route. I peeked through the trees as I went. The kobolds were still at the ready, now in a battle formation surrounding their leader. The crowned kobold was nothing if not wary.
You can wait as long as you want, I thought, but your underlings won’t be back. They were a meal, and now their power is mine, and I will use it to kill you.
I pulled the string of the black bow and released a magic arrow. It twisted and turned as it sped through the trees, ignoring the kobold juniors as it neared a kobold warrior in the middle of the formation.
But just as it was about to sink into the kobold’s neck, it stopped. The crowned kobold caught the arrow in its bare hand.
How is that even…? I gulped, and sweat rolled down my forehead. I ducked into the long grass beneath the trees, quieting my breath as I hid from sight.
“GRAAAAHHHHHH!”
I couldn’t see the crowned kobold, but I heard its roar. Did it already know where I was? I peeked out again and saw it stomping around the battle formation, its ears pointed up on alert. Then it turned toward my cliff and stopped.
Damn it. It knows where I am.
The crowned kobold unleashed another roar and glowered at me across the distance. The kobolds surrounding it now knew where I was too, and they let out menacing howls.
This was bad. My stats were still a long way from matching the crowned kobold’s, and if it came to combat at close quarters, the odds weren’t in my favor: there were thirty-five kobold juniors, two kobold warriors, and The One Called Howl.
But I couldn’t run, either. If the kobolds beat me, it would strengthen their resolve, and their attacks on the estate would grow more vicious. I thought of the faces of the villagers I had spent the day picking grapes with. The smiles and joy. The kindness with which they accepted a novice like me. Each of their faces passed through my mind, and at the center of them was Lady Roxy, smiling as she offered me her hand.
I gripped the black bow. I didn’t want to lose any of them. Power surged through my body with that thought.
“Prepare for battle, Greed!” I shouted.
“I knew you’d say that. Avoid the crowned kobold, and concentrate on picking off the formation!”
Greed did not advise me to retreat. He knew how I felt and understood my message loud and clear. All that was left was to win!
The two kobold warriors on either side of the crowned kobold were difficult targets, being protected. My only option was to start by feasting on the kobold juniors to steadily raise my stats.
Now that the crowned kobold had given away my position, there was no use hiding. I stood up from the grass, readied the black bow, and fired as many shots as I could, every one of them at a kobold junior.
Gluttony skill activated. Stats increased: Vitality +10,560, Strength +10,680, Magic +4,200, Spirit +4,800, Agility +9,360
Twelve down. Not enough. I hungered for more.
Now that it had seen the black bow’s attacks, the crowned kobold knew the pack’s current location in the ravine made them all easy targets. It sent the kobold juniors into the forests on the left and right.
The juniors tore through the rustling grass toward me, darting between trees and keeping out of sight. If my concentration slipped for an instant, they would have me surrounded. Arms crossed, the crowned kobold watched from the ravine.
There was only one place for me to go: straight at the crowned kobold and its two kobold warriors. Now that the remaining kobold juniors had spread out and dispersed, this was my chance. Even if it was a trap, it was better than standing still and letting them come to me.
Through my Telepathy, I could tell Greed felt the same. His powerful voice echoed through me. “Fate! Keep the crowned kobold occupied with the bow, then cut it down at close quarters with the black sword.”
“Easy for you to say. You’re not the one that has to fight it.”
“Ha. But what choice do you have?”
“None.”
I leapt from my position, black bow at the ready. I fired my first shot as I ran, a message sent straight to the crowned kobold’s forehead. Without missing a beat, I fired a second arrow, this one aimed at the neck of the kobold warrior standing to the right of its leader. The crowned kobold stopped both arrows, swiping away the one aimed at its head and catching the one aimed at its minion.
What the hell kind of reaction speed is that?!
The crowned kobold sent me a snarling grin as it snapped the black arrow in its hand. The arrow, made of magical energy, dissipated into light particles and vanished. Frontal attacks with the bow were useless. They worked on lower-ranked enemies, but not this crowned monstrosity. It saw every arrow and stopped them without trouble, even the ones I had fired from hiding. Direct attacks meant nothing to it. But I wasn’t going to stop.
I fired arrow after arrow, and the crowned kobold knocked away every single one. It moved with a grace and skill that contrasted with its hulking body. But I only needed to keep it occupied long enough to close in. Then I could use the black sword.
My target was either of the kobold warriors. If I devoured one of their souls, it would raise my stats to just above the crowned kobold’s. That was the only way to quickly bring the odds into my favor and even the playing field.
“GRAAAAAHHHHHH!”
The crowned kobold roared, and the twenty-three kobold juniors hidden in the forest raised their heads. They dashed in to surround me.
I had expected this. The difference had only ever been in whether I waited for them to come to me, or whether I planned for them to come to me. The situation now, where I was battle-ready, was vastly superior. On top of that, the timing was perfect, because I could use the kobold juniors.
I sent the black sword through the chest of an incoming kobold junior and charged with its body toward the crowned kobold.
Gluttony skill activated. Stats increased: Vitality +880, Strength +890, Magic +350, Spirit +400, Agility +780
The crowned kobold glared as I closed in. I swung my sword, launching the junior at The One Called Howl’s face as I hid in the flying corpse’s shadow. The crowned kobold growled in irritation as it tore the body to pieces with its claws. Then it turned on its heel and launched a second attack behind it, toward where I now stood.
“Ugh!”
A sharp pain ran through my left shoulder. The crowned kobold’s claws had slashed through it. In return for that pain, though, I had gotten close enough to launch an attack on the kobold warrior to the crowned kobold’s right.
It was time to eat.
The kobold warrior showed its fangs as it attacked, but it was no match for me. I brought the black sword down with my right hand and sliced the kobold in two.
Gluttony skill activated. Stats increased: Vitality +50,000, Strength +50,000, Magic +27,000, Spirit +28,000, Agility +45,000
As the metallic voice spoke in my head, my stats grew. I now had the power to take the crowned kobold’s attacks. As it bore down on me from behind, I turned and stopped it with the black sword.
The attack was heavy. Even though my stats were a touch higher, the difference between the crowned kobold and I was minimal. The One Called Howl was still far larger than me. The kobold’s attack pushed me back; its massive bodyweight threw me. I had intended to stop the attack, but it sent me flying. I smashed into one of the huge rocks behind me.
The attack knocked the wind out of me, and my consciousness pulsed white. Greed set alarm bells ringing t
hrough my Telepathy.
“Wake up, Fate!”
Greed’s voice brought my vision front and center to the approaching crowned kobold and his remaining kobold warrior. Now that they had me pinned, they would push in to continue their attack.
I rolled on the ground, just barely evading the crowned kobold’s next blow, which shattered the rock it had thrown me into. As I watched the stone turn to dust, however, I realized that “shattered” was too light a word. The crowned kobold’s attack completely pulverized the rock.
The monster’s destructive power was unbelievable. If I was hit by that strike, I was, without a doubt, dead. Still stunned, I didn’t realize that when I rolled out of the way, the kobold warrior’s kick was waiting for me. It struck me so hard I thought my spine would break.
It made me think of the Vlerick family, and of Rafale. It made me think of how I had worked in their place, and the excuses they’d bandied to inflict their violence on me. If I could take torture like that day after day, I could take this!
I gripped the kobold warrior’s leg, and with all the power I could muster, I tore the limb straight off. Then I snatched the black sword up from the ground where it had fallen and put an end to the beast.
Gluttony skill activated. Stats increased: Vitality +50,000, Strength +50,000, Magic +27,000, Spirit +28,000, Agility +45,000
I haven’t just reached your level now, I thought. I have surpassed it.
My wounded shoulder was healing thanks to Health Regen. A most valuable skill.
This new feast had filled me with a bounty of power, and I analyzed my stats with Identify.
Fate Graphite, Lv 1
Vitality: 272,201
Strength: 272,301
Magic: 140,251
Spirit: 145,501
Agility: 235,401
Skills: Gluttony, Identify, Telepathy, Conceal, Night Vision, One-Handed Sword Technique, Two-Handed Sword Technique, Strength Boost (Low), Strength Boost (Medium), Vitality Boost (Low), Vitality Boost (Medium), Agility Boost (Medium), Health Regen
With all the kobold warriors dead, the kobold juniors shook with fear and doubt. Their formation broke. They were dogs, in the end, and powerless against their instinctive fear.
Keeping my distance, I turned to face the crowned kobold, abandoned as the kobold juniors scattered. It glared at me with pure loathing.
Chapter 19:
A Greedy Way to Go
T HE CROWNED KOBOLD was unlike its companions. Even though it sensed my higher stats, its fighting spirit refused to waver. A vital hate flooded from its sharp, half-moon eyes. I will kill you, they said, even if it means we both go down.
By and large, the crowned kobold had a careful nature. But here and now, with its back against the wall, it had changed. For a time we stayed still, eyes locked. Using Identify, I analyzed the monster’s skill.
Brawl: Increases attack power for close-quarters combat. Unlocks the organ-crushing tech-art “Ruinous Strike.”
So that was Brawl’s tech-art. I had witnessed it when the crowned kobold turned that boulder into dust. Despite my higher stats, at close range, I would lose if I took more than one hit from that attack. My bones would be powder, and I would be dead. The key was to stay out of range.
“Fate, let’s end this quickly,” Greed said. “With your current stats, you can access my First Level secret technique, Bloody Ptarmigan.”
“You have a secret technique?!”
“I do. With it, you can end this boring back-and-forth and blow this beast sky high.”
I kept careful watch on the crowned kobold as I spoke. “What do I have to do?”
“Simple. Give me ten percent of your stats. All of them.”
When I unlocked the First Level, I had lost almost the entirety of my stats. Now, to use a secret technique, I had to give a portion of them up? Ten percent for access? This black sword was as greedy as its name implied.
“Bring it down to five percent, and you’ve got yourself a deal.”
“No can do. The minimum is ten percent. You want a stronger attack, you give me more stats.”
“Stingy, aren’t you?”
Greed laughed. “My name should tell you all you need to know.”
Just how many more of my stats would the black sword take before he was satisfied? His greed was a bottomless pit. At the same time, I wanted to avoid close-quarters combat, if at all possible. The crowned kobold was more experienced in battle. If I threw myself into a full-on assault, it might catch me with a Ruinous Strike. That would mean bye-bye to my internal organs. But if I kept my distance with the black bow, the kobold would knock Greed’s arrows away. I’d seen as much earlier. Still, there was no other choice. I changed the black sword to the black bow and fired a single shot, which doubled as a threat.
The crowned kobold seized the neck of a nearby kobold junior and used it as a shield against the magic arrow. The junior frothed at the mouth as it died.
Gluttony skill activated. Stats increased: Vitality +880, Strength +890, Magic +350, Spirit +400, Agility +780
I made up my mind. “Fine. Do it, Greed!”
“That’s my boy. Ten percent of your stats… I am going to enjoy this!”
My stats left my body in a cold rush through my left hand. Immediately, the black bow changed before my eyes, growing dramatically larger and more ominous.
So this was what happened when Greed absorbed my power. Even as the black bow’s wielder, I felt unfathomable pressure emanate from the change; it was impossible to ignore. This had exceeded the scale of any ordinary weapon. It was something more .
“Drop the stupid look and get to it. The crowned kobold won’t wait.”
“Then let’s finish this.”
“Shoot arrows just like you always do. Pull and release! The bow will take care of the rest.”
My amplified weapon was immensely powerful, and it was my last shot. If the bow didn’t cut it, there was no way I could handle the crowned kobold on my own.
Just as Greed had warned, the crowned kobold moved. It meant to attack me, regardless of the black bow’s transformation. The monster raised its thick arms as a shield and charged. Even if it lost its arms, it could tear out my throat with its fangs, or otherwise finish me with kicks from its Ruinous Strike. This was a kamikaze attack.
Time to put both of us to the test, and find out if the crowned kobold could withstand the force of the transformed black bow’s power.
“Fate! Fire!”
In time with Greed’s call, I launched the Bloody Ptarmigan attack. The kickback was incredible, and the force pushed me backward. An arrow launched from the bow with a scream of lightning and turned into a thick column of darkness, which swallowed the crowned kobold and washed over the remaining kobold juniors as they scrambled to escape. The ravine turned into a great river of shadow.
All that remained after the attack were deep scars across the land. Not a single trace of kobold, not even a strand of hair. But I knew from the metallic voice ringing in my head that the crowned kobold had been annihilated.
Gluttony skill activated. Stats increased: Vitality +218,480, Strength +218,690, Magic +132,350, Spirit +143,400, Agility +141,380. Skill added: Brawl
Its power spent, the black bow slowly returned to the form I was most accustomed to.
It’s over. I let out a relieved breath, but I was suddenly struck by a euphoria that surged through my body, produced by the soul I had just devoured. The elation coursing through me was so intense it hurt.
I screamed. I had to let it out. Why…?
I was left writhing on the ground in rapturous satisfaction as the feeling clawed up my throat. This wasn’t just joy. The feeling welling in my body was madness . Feasting upon the soul of the crowned kobold gave my Gluttony such pleasure that it hurt; I was losing myself.
Somewhere within the delirious haze, I heard Greed.
“Fate, you must endure! If you can’t, you’ll end up in a state similar to starvation, or worse. You must endu
re!”
“Easy for you…to say… This is…”
I bashed my head into a nearby rock in an attempt to keep my thoughts straight, heaving as I begged the waves of Gluttony to subside.
“Looks like the worst is over,” Greed said.
“Yeah, that was the worst. Is it always going to feel like that when I take down a crowned beast?”
I wiped the drool away from the corners of my mouth and put a hand to my forehead wound. Health Regen had taken care of it. It was so reassuring to carry that ability into battle.
“Your body is simply reacting to the first high-quality soul it has ever eaten. Now that you’ve tasted it, Gluttony won’t go mad with ecstasy again. That said, who knows what’ll happen if you eat something at the level of the Divine Dragon?”
“The living embodiment of heavenly calamity?! There’s no way I’m going to be able to eat something like that!”
Greed laughed. “Maybe.”
I sagged in place and looked up at the sky. The moon peeked out from behind the clouds, and moonlight bathed the land. I had stopped the kobolds’ advance, but as the moonlight brought clarity, the state of the ravine left me dumbfounded.
“By the gods. We. Wrecked. Everything. This ravine was so beautiful before, but now…”
“Nothing to worry about,” said Greed. “To win the battle you may as well make it total domination. This is a prime example. Right, Fate?”
“What’re we going to do about…all of this? When the others see this tomorrow, they’re going to freak out.”
“It’s not a problem, Fate. In a thousand years, the shape of the land will be nigh unrecognizable. So you decimated the ravine. So what? You’re overreacting. Even a century, and it will be good as new.”
It seemed pretty clear that for Greed, an inorganic object, time flowed in a very different manner. A century? But what am I going to do about all this…this desecration…now?
Trees had fallen to the ground, uprooted. The once vibrant natural beauty of the ravine was now a portrait of tragedy. I had saved Lady Roxy’s family estate from disaster, but…how in the world was I going to save what had become of the land itself?
Berserk of Gluttony (Light Novel) Vol. 1 Page 14
