by Yuu Tanaka
I got Float, Drain Magic, and Hawkeye from that encounter. All of them seemed like useful skills, and Float seemed like it would have great synergy with Telekinesis after I played around with it for a bit. As its name implied, it allowed me to float in the air with little effort. Casting it consumed mana, of course, but it wasn’t as much of a drain as having to constantly fly using Telekinesis. I could now cover five times as much distance as I did before, and with the help of Drain Magic, I could extend my excursions indefinitely.
Then, a thought crossed my mind as I was experimenting with Float. That Air Floater had Float in its skillset, so why didn’t the Carrion Vulture have Flight despite it being a bird monster? The same could be said of the Poison Fang Rat which didn’t have the Poison Fang skill. There had to have been something common between the two monsters. Then again, you might need wings to use Flight, so I might not be able to use it even if I got it.
Wait, I wouldn’t be able to fly without wings? What if Flight isn’t a skill to begin with?
The goblins didn’t have Walking or Breathing in their Skill List, so maybe it was the same with Flight for bird monsters. They didn’t need magic or specialization to function considering it was a normal physiological feature. That would explain the Poison Fang Rat too. It already came equipped with specialized glands and fangs which allowed it to use venom, like venomous snakes back on my Earth. In comparison, the Giant Centipede’s poison fangs must have been created with magic.
And seeing as Sword Mastery is an acquired skill, is that why I’m able to absorb it?
There were many things I didn’t know about my body that warranted further experimentation. The Hawkeye skill proved to be of great use, too. It allowed me to zoom in and manipulate the angles from which I was viewing a certain object, which meant I was no longer restricted to a fixed camera angle. It didn’t work if my target was too far, but I could now see almost everything around me.
Let’s see what else I can hunt!
Reincarnation Log: Day Four.
Gimme all your gems!
I was just coming off my 124th kill of the day when I received a certain prompt.
You have reached a new Evolution Level. You have acquired 10 Evolution Points.
I opened my Status menu.
Evolution: [Rank 2; Crystals: 102/300; Skill Capacity: 12; Free Points: 10]
Well that was fast.
I had gone over a hundred crystals at some point in the day, despite only being at eighty this morning.
What did I do differently from yesterday? I guess I moved to new hunting grounds…
The monsters in the direct vicinity of the ruins were becoming easier and easier, and I had decided to move away from it. As such, the monsters got stronger the further I went away. There was the Crush Boar, a giant pig with a hammer for a snout; the Iron Ant, a giant ant with mandibles that could crush boulders; and the Rock Bison, which had fur as hard as stone. The beasts were larger, their levels higher, their skills more plentiful, and their crystals bigger.
I guess size does matter when it comes to magic crystals… Do I get more than one crystal out of the tougher monsters?
That had to be the case. There was no way the Crush Boar, which was over two meters in size, would yield the same amount of crystals as your garden variety of goblin.
I wonder what else has changed.
I looked to see if my other stats had gone up. The differences were quite significant.
Attack: 132, MP: 200/200, Durability: 100/100
Whoa, this is awesome! I could actually become the world’s strongest sword! Haha, now I’m motivated! It looks like my skill cap went up, too.
I set my sights on capping all my stats.
So…what am I supposed to do with the ten Evolution Points?
I looked at the points I got with my rank up. A slew of items popped up on my menu under the header of Skill List.
Upgrades:
Attack Up (Small); Durability Up (Small);Telekinesis Up (Small); Telepathy Up (Small); MP Up (Small); Skill Capacity Up (Small); Increase Skill Level; Bestiary; Herbology; Mineralogy
Boy, that’s a lot. Am I supposed to pick some to level up? After mulling it over, I decided to increase my MP for now.
Spend 5 points to obtain MP Up (Small)?
I thought “Yes” to myself, answering the text prompt.
You have obtained MP Up (Small).
I saw that five points had been deducted from my total Evolution Points and that MP Up (Small) had been added to my Skill List. Finally, my MP had been increased by one hundred points.
Thanks, Evolution!
But what now? I wanted all the upgrades, but I knew I wasn’t going to have enough points for all of them. I ended up picking Increase Skill Level since it looked like that was going to let me level up the skills in my Skill Bank. However, it looked like I had to level them up one at a time. I picked Sword Mastery to see what would happen and it told me I needed two points to level it up. Actually, most of my skills only needed two points to level up, with the exception of Poison Fang and Floatation which needed five. I wondered what the cause of the difference was and speculated that it had something to do with the fact that Poison Fang and Floatation didn’t have numbers indicating their skill levels.
I didn’t have much to go on, but I decided on Attack Up (Small) in the end. It was straightforward and had the most impact on fighting monsters. The skill was added to my Skill List and my attack power was increased by fifty points. Great, now I had more reason for crystal collection.
Now I’m really motivated! I’ll hunt every last monster in these parts to extinction!
I was ready to get down to business. I soared through the skies with high spirits and descended upon every monster I came across like an eagle on its prey. Most of them went out in one hit while the ones that didn’t were very close to dying. All that remained for the stragglers was their cruel slaughter. When I was done absorbing their crystals, I took to the skies again and resumed my hunt for prey. Search and Destroy. I didn’t feel bad for my prey and I felt I was little more than a bloodthirsty cursed sword without a conscience. As a matter of fact, I had to hunt to survive. The sensation of absorbing crystals was the closest thing to eating that I had.
All in all, I was happy about getting all sorts of skills. Ooh, I haven’t seen that one before. My skills were increasing at a steady rate, though I did get some useless ones like Enhanced Digestion and Enhanced Taste Buds. How was I supposed to use either of those? They would come in handy once I found my User I guess, but until then they were completely pointless. This aspect of collecting skills did tickle my nerd side, and I found it to be more enjoyable than gathering up crystals. I would love to get my hands on a monster that has a lot of skills, I thought to myself, recalling the monsters I had faced until now.
Goblins taste pretty good, actually.
They usually moved around in small groups and yielded a decent amount of crystals. More importantly, they had an amazing variety of skills to choose from. Their opposable thumbs had given the goblins an opportunity to learn a great assortment of skills that would help with their daily lives which separated them from the animal-type monsters.
Guess I’m going on a goblin hunt.
Fortunately, I saw them quite frequently around the pedestal, so they shouldn’t be too hard to find. However, just as I decided to make goblins the main part of my crystal diet, I immediately hit a wall.
Where the hell are all the goblins?!
They weren’t completely absent, but they weren’t flourishing, either. What was a magic sword to do in this situation?
Hmm… I know! I’ll look for the goblins’ nest and exterminate every last one of them!
I hadn’t noticed anything that resembled housing on the plains, so they had to be in some sort of hole somewhere. It shouldn’t be too hard to spot from the sky.
Or so I thought.
Can’t seem to find any goblin nests.
Two days had gone by and I had
yet to find a single goblin nest. I supposed they were craftier than I thought. All right then. The next time I fought a group of goblins, I would let some of them escape and let them guide me to their base of operations. Then I could just slaughter them all in one fell swoop. A brilliant plan, if I did say so myself.
I spotted a group of goblins and hovered at a lower altitude to follow them. I stalked them for about an hour on my tiptoes (if I had any toes to speak of), remaining as quiet as possible. I observed that the goblins would break into a dance at times and be completely entranced by a formation of ants at another. All in all, they wasted so much time getting to where they were going which I found irritating. So irritating, in fact, that I thought about killing them at multiple points during the observation.
I’ve gotten way too used to Search and Destroy.
I wanted to give myself a pat on the back for showing restraint as I infiltrated the hole in the ground hidden by some shrubbery. The further I went in, the less able I was to restrain my laughter.
Heheheh… I don’t have to hold back anymore, do I?
In an instant, I let out my pent-up rage along with my mounting hunger for crystals.
Give me all your crystals!
“Shoo gya gya!”
“Gyuha!”
This hole in the ground was a great idea.
Magic coursed through me after my meal, soothing the sensations which felt like thirst and hunger. I dusted myself off, concealed my presence, and resumed my stealthy hunt for more goblins. I had to have killed around thirty of them after an hour, but they hadn’t sent any of their troops after me yet. Had they not noticed?
Well, this is a big hallway.
I followed it until I turned a corner and entered a room the size of a gymnasium that was filled with goblins as far as the eye could see. There must have been around fifty of them. They were a considerable threat at that amount, even if all of them were weak individually. I figured they could easily mob a medium-sized monster to death. As I was scanning the room, one of the goblins caught my eye. Its face was covered with scars and its body was twice as large as the rest of the greenskins; it looked like an old war veteran. It wore armor, which may have belonged to an adventurer once, and its giant sword was stuck in the ground next to it.
Yes, jackpot!
Name: Goblin King
Race: Demon
LV: 21
HP: 97; Magic: 26; Strength: 57; Agility: 26
Skills: Intimidate 2; Sword Arts 2; Sword Mastery 4; Command 4; Morale Boost 3; Shield Mastery 2; Provoke 1; Throwing Weapons 1; Vigor 1; Spirit Manipulation
The Goblin King himself. The other goblins’ stats were nothing compared to his.
I guess they found out about my intrusion and went to protect their king.
I trembled with excitement as I looked at his stats. It was the sort of euphoria you got when you were about to be served a high-class dinner, except this was also an all-out buffet to boot. There was a veritable assortment of goblins: soldiers, archers, knights, mages, warriors, monks, medics, and shamans.
Let’s do this!
I focused my energy, careful to hold nothing back since my will commanded the intensity of my Telekinesis. I gathered up all the mana I could put into Telekinesis to accelerate toward the mob at blinding speeds. I called this one the Telekinesis Catapult.
You’re going down first, Your Majesty!
I unleashed my charge and launched toward the Goblin King in an instant. The silence of my Telekinesis gave him no chance to react. Despite being a sharp object, the impact of my blade was closer to that of a cannonball, and I ended up exploding his head before getting stuck in the cave wall. I was quite impressed with myself. A few moments later, the beheaded body of the Goblin King slumped forward and fell to the ground with a thud. Blood gushed out of his neck and stained the ground. Silence fell upon the cave as the goblins realized what had just happened to their king. Then they erupted, in anguish and rage, and it felt like their voices shook the room itself.
“Gyaooo!”
“Graaah!”
“Grooo!”
There were a whole slew of reactions. There were those who panicked and ran around the room; those who ran up to the king’s corpse; those who stood in place, roaring as they stood.
Now the goblin king’s aide, who had been standing next to the king before he died, faced the other goblins and barked orders at them. Five of them ran out of the room to check if anyone had thrown the sword which killed their leader, seeing as they thought it impossible for a sword to throw itself. The goblins’ gazes were fixed on the hallway, anxious to find their mysterious assassin.
Except there’s no one for you to find, you fools!
I put on a show of falling to the ground due to a breeze, but I turned and launched myself at the aide instead. He looked like he was the brains of the operation in my opinion.
Now give me your magic!
As useful as the Goblin King’s physical stats may have been, the goblin mages were my main target from the start. I had been itching to get my blade on their spells since the first time I used Identify on them.
Name: Goblin Mage
Race: Demon
LV: 9
HP: 27; Magic: 36; Strength: 14; Agility: 20
Skills: Mineralogy 1; Command 1; Staff Mastery 2; Battle Staff 1; Fire Magic 3; Fire Magic Up (Small); Mana Manipulation
Bwahahaha! Now I can use magic, too!
It was every nerd’s dream to use magic in an alternate universe, after all, and seeing that I was a nerd myself, my excitement was a foregone conclusion.
But before that, I’ll have to clean the rest of you up!
It was a one-sided fight from there. The goblins were in a state of fearful panic throughout, most likely because they were no longer under the effects of the Goblin King’s Morale Boost. The Goblin Mage wasn’t around to give them orders anymore either, so they no longer had anyone to quell their hysteria. Having lost their leaders, the formidable fighting force that was the goblin troop was reduced to little more than a terrified mob. The stronger goblins fought back, but their uncoordinated attacks were no match for me. Meanwhile, the weaker goblins couldn’t land any direct hits on me either, and I came out unscathed. In fact, the goblins got in each other’s way more than they got in mine.
And this would be the last archer!
I prioritized taking out my long-range attackers. With them taken care of, I flew close to the ceiling where the rest of the troop could do nothing but stare. I looked down on them like the pile of EXP that they were. I swooped down and circled round the mob, cutting goblins down as I went. I killed the ones who were trying to escape first, and, although a significant amount of them got away, I managed to take down thirty of them during my assault.
Boy, did I level up after that.
My skill levels for Sword Mastery and Club Mastery went up with nearly every crystal I absorbed. I supposed my skills leveled up when I absorbed a crystal which had the same skill. Alternatively, I had to absorb a certain number of crystals with the same skill to level it up. In any case, the fact that I was able to level up made me quite happy.
HAHAHAHA! NOW I HAVE ALL THE EXP!
After slaughtering the stragglers and absorbing their crystals, I left the goblin nest with something akin to a full stomach.
Now, where’s my pedestal again?
Night had fallen by the time I had demolished the goblin nest and. Although I was flying around in high spirits, darkness had enveloped the land and I lost my sense of direction.
The moon’s over there, which means…
Not much, really. The moons moved differently in this world, so I could scarcely rely on them for direction. The moonlight may have brightened up the landscape but I still couldn’t see as well compared to daytime. I was completely lost.
I guess I should give up on going home tonight.
The pedestal had become something of a home to me, so I wanted to go home at least once every day where possib
le. Resting within the pedestal made me feel at ease, if nothing else. Returning under the cover of night seemed impossible, however, so I figured I may as well spend the rest of the night hunting since I no longer had any need of sleep. I hesitated for some time since the idea of nocturnal exploration scared me, but it wasn’t as if I had any other choice.
I headed out, flying at a lower altitude this time. The less distance I had to fall to the ground in case of any surprise attacks, the better. I had seen some large flying monsters earlier, like a bat the size of a cow and a winged anaconda, so I had to play it safe.
I used not only my eyes but all my senses, if you could call them that, on my hunt. I had half expected the monsters to be stronger at night, but it was quite the opposite; they might have been weaker since they had to live under the cover of darkness. It took some time to find my quarry but none of them put up much of a fight.
Nice! Echolocation and Awareness! I’m getting so many great utility skills!
The nocturnal monsters were loaded with exploration and detection skills. One of the most helpful skills was Echolocation, which I got from a Giant Bat. It allowed the user to use mana and sound to locate creatures and objects within a thirty-meter radius. Nocturnal exploration became a walk in the park with it.
Time to rake in those crystals and rank up!
I proceeded to hunt down monsters I hadn’t seen during the daytime and was filled with so much ecstasy that I couldn’t see two feet ahead of me. All I could think about was going after my prey. Looking back, I may have let the thrill of the hunt get to my head.
