Kei was now in the forest. Since it was late at night, he made sure to not to go too far in. This was to prevent any dangerous encounters. Before morning, the remaining few hours would then be spent training “Howl” and “Acceleration”.

(I’ll activate “Acceleration” first so I can control the speed a bit better. Once I can manage that, I’ll test out “Howl”. Hopefully, at some point, I’ll activate both together so I can save time while training.)

For the first hour, he ran around the forest in a circular motion. With “Acceleration”, his speed was quite fast. However, the control was just a bit off. At times, he would collide into a tree and fall to the ground. This was because unlike his fight against the wolf leader (where he simply rushed forward), changing angles required practice and precision. The more he kept running, the better he felt when maneuvering himself. After the hour was over, he was somewhat out of breath.

(Man, this is rough. That being said, I think I’ll be able to activate “Howl” now since my movement’s a lot better. But first, I’ll go check out what’s moving on my radar.)

Sensing a red dot not too far away, Kei wanted to make sure that there was no imminent danger. He rushed towards it. After seeing only a snake, he was relieved. But, deep inside, he kind of wished to stumble upon a different monster. In the worst case scenario, he would steal its abilities and run away. Kei killed the slithering monster in one strike with his claws. Since he was much stronger than before, the exp gain and strengthening of skills was very little.

(Oh well. I’ll take a short break and eat this snake.)

After sitting down, he began to chew the corpse. It still had that same bitter taste. The reason for this was due to the venom in its body. Goblins are only capable of eating snakes because of their strong digestive systems. Furthermore, unlike other poisons, venom is usually only lethal when it enters directly through the bloodstream. For this reason, even humans can sometimes digest it without much harm (by breaking down the poison with their enzymes). As a result, goblins wouldn’t really be affected by only eating it.

(Time to get back to training. It’ll be morning soon.)

He activated “Howl”. Contrary to the name, Kei did not make any sound. Instead, he could feel a weak aura emanating from his body.

(I kind of feel like the ghetto version of a demon lord. If a much weaker monster was close to me, I could understand how it’d be paralyzed from fear.)

However, Kei felt that “Howl” would be useless for the time being. Since he was still weak himself, only through training it and ranking up could it be useful against weaker enemies later on. That being said, he came up with a great idea to maximize his skill training. Therefore, the time spent activating “Howl” could also be spent training other skills as well.

(On top of “Acceleration” and “Howl”, I’ll activate “Spider Silk” from now on and try to weave thread as I’m moving. I’ll call this genius idea the “ultimate cheat training”! Hahaha…)

Until morning, Kei continually strengthened his skills in this fashion. Since controlling three hard abilities required a lot of concentration, at times, Kei would crash into the trees in the forest. However, he simply got back up and continued with the process.

(The sun’s up. The other goblins are probably waking up by now. It looks like it’s time for me to find that old fart and ask him about the goblin system in the village. I also have a few questions about new monsters to fight in the forest.)

Before heading to the elder, Kei dropped by his shed. He peaked inside the rooms of Ai and Yujin.

(It looks like the other two are sleeping. I was planning on taking the whole day off, but now that I look at them they seem to have healed quite well. Once I’m done getting the information I need, we’ll head back out to hunt again.)

After a short walk, Kei finally made it to the elder’s shed. Along the way, he saw goblins holding spears and walking towards the forest. Once the old goblin noticed Kei, his face lit up.

Elder: [Kawai! What brings you here?]

[I have some things I wanted to ask you about.]

Elder: [No problem! Let’s head to the cave.]

On their way to there, the elder said something that almost made Kei chuckle.

Elder: [Lately, I’ve been feeling the effects of aging a lot more. A few days ago, I felt like I lost my ability to understand what’s going on around me. Before I grow too senile, feel free to ask this old as many questions as you want!]

Unfortunately, the old goblin didn’t know that this was all due to Kei stealing his ability. When they were close to arriving at the room where they previously discussed, Kei nonchalantly activated “Observe” on the elder.

Name: Gobuta

Rank

Goblin

Skills

“Goblin Language”, “Job: Spear User”

(His name’s Gobuta!? My goodness…No wonder he wants to be addressed as elder.)

Kei also noticed something bizarre. When he activated “Greed” on the elder previously, he only managed to steal “Observe”. At that time, he didn’t know how to steal specific skills. Therefore, all of the goblin’s abilities should have been stolen when he activated his ability. The only explanation for this is that the voice in his head was capable of distinguishing what abilities Kei wanted at the time. However, he wasn’t sure.

(I’ll think about that later. Since we’ve already made it to the room, it’s time to dig for information.)

The discussion began with Kei mentioning his desire to protect Ai and Yujin. This was purposefully done by him in order to lead the conversation towards the system of goblins within the village. He pretended that he wanted to understand the hierarchy of the goblins in order to not offend any of them (for the sake of Ai and Yujin). However, the real reason was so that he could eventually reign supreme within it.

(Let’s see what he’s got for me.)

The elder began his explanation. Within the village there were around 400 to 500 goblins. The lowest status began with the goblin babies and infants. These were the weakest of them all. At most, they could kill a rat. After that was the goblin elder. Due to his age, he was stronger than the infants but weaker than the adult goblins. Then, higher than the typical adult was the hobgoblin. These beings could easily fight with up to ten adult goblins. Finally, the highest of all were ogres.

(I remember he told me something similar to that when I asked about ranks. Interesting…)

In the village, there was currently only one hobgoblin. His name was Balthezar. He had a blue skin tone and a toned body.

(I think I’ve seen someone like that before…)

Previously, there were two hobgoblins. However, the other one had just ranked up and Balthezar schemed to kill it before it could pose a greater threat to him. This hobgoblin was now rounding up goblin troops in order to eventually gain full control over the village.

(It looks like someone has the same idea as me… Unfortunately for him, once I get strong enough, I’ll have to bust this guy’s bubble and beat his ass in front of everyone.)

Afterwards, the elder mentioned that ogres rarely appeared. There were none within the village; even throughout his lifetime. He only knew about them from stories pertaining to ancient times.

(Well, that’ll be all “ogre” once I rank up twice… Haha… Ah… my jokes are getting worse…)

Kei now had a vague understanding of what was going on in the village. This only fueled him even more to get stronger as fast as possible. This was because he wanted to test out his strength against Balthezar. Also, he wondered what skills he could steal from the monster. However, he was in no rush to use “Greed” since the monster wasn’t going to leave the village any time soon.

(Let’s see what else he can tell me about other monsters in the forest.)

Before the elder began to explain about the forest, he muttered something about human females, hobgoblins, and jealousy. Although Kei couldn’t really hear it, he had a feeling that he understood what the goblin was saying.

(I’m pretty sure he just said that he wished to become a hobgoblin so that he could nail all the women in the cave. Jeez… another stereotypical old pervert…*sigh*)

The old goblin then told Kei about a rumor going around. As a result of this rumour some goblins have gone missing. Apparently, north of the forest, there was a small magical area where living plants resided. These plants were unable to leave the area unless they were dead. Also, this region contained many other strong monsters. All of them apparently tasted much better than the food closer to the forest.

(What a pleasant surprise! I guess I should try heading there today then.)

Finally, the elder warned him to be wary of the other villages in the forest. Although there was no clear information on this subject, apparently, far into the forest there were other groups of living monsters.

(It must be those orcs…)

On an individual scale, these beings were even stronger than a hobgoblin. To top it off, he told Kei that goblins were considered among the weakest beings in the forest (if not the weakest).

(Trust me old man, I know something a lot weaker than a goblin… a rat...*cough*cough*)

Having asked what he wanted, he thanked the elder. It was now time for Kei to head back to his shed. With all this new information, he now had a better understanding of the village. Also, he couldn’t wait to continue venturing inside the forest in search for new skills!