∼ Day 9 ∼

"C'mon Bob, get out of the water, we have to get moving" - Me

Hearing me he immediately jumped out and shook himself like a wet dog would.

Stepping back barely dodging the spray of water droplets, I shoot Bob an annoyed look.

But not even noticing my glare, he simply walks over to pick up his blood dagger.

Turning to me he just stares at me with something akin to reverence.

Sighing, I motion him to approach.

Picking him up as I did before, I lifted off the ground.

This time Bob wasn't unconscious, and he immediately became terrified as the ground became further and further away.

"Calm down Bob, I won't drop you" - Me

With a slightly embarrassed look, he glances at me.

Until sundown, Bob and I flew deeper into the rocky hills.

On the way, we saw increasing amounts of goblin parties and dens.

Whenever we found one that was suitable, I allowed Bob to handle them. Increasing both his EXP and battle instincts.

But it was after killing our fourth goblin party that we found something very interesting.

While diving deeper into the depths of the rocky hills, not only the number of goblins increased but also their levels.

And we had discovered a few goblins who had reached the level threshold.

But this time, a big goblin party of fifteen goblins was tracking through a worn road.

What was interesting other than the sheer size of the party was the leader.

It wasn't a goblin.

It was a hobgoblin.

About the height of a young adult man, with a darker green complexion. It looked distinctively more human in both face and body.

Its body was slim but taught with wiry muscles. From its mouth protruded two canines almost qualifying as small tusks, and its eyes glinted with cunning unbeknownst to its goblin counterpart.

Very intrigued, I land with Bob on the crown of a tree and mentally command Bob to stay quiet.

Not wasting any more time I appraise the hobgoblin leader.

-Appraisal!-

Appraisal - Hobgoblin

Information Attributes

Traits. Titles. and Skills -Name- "???" STR 12 Skills ??? -Race- Hobgoblin VIT 9 Traits ??? -Sex- Male AGI 16 Titles ??? -Rank- G- DEX 12 Resistances

-Level- 4/20 INT 8 Health 58/58 CHR 5 Physical Resistance 4 Stamina 22/26 WILL ??? Magical Resistance 0.809 Mana 0/0 MAG 0.5 Mental Resistance ???

Hmm, interesting.

Looking back at the little green guy behind me, trying his best to stay silent, I begin to ponder an idea.

Needing to be sure before I could act on such an idea I needed to take stock of our current situation.

So pulled up all the prompts we've gathered until now.

[You have slain 2 Goblins!]

[You have been rewarded with 51 points of EXP]

[36 Goblins has been slain by another under your control!]

[You have been rewarded with the split 612 points of EXP]

[Congratulations! You've reached level 3]

[You've been rewarded with 1 skill point for reaching level 3]

[Swift Flight has reached LVL: 5]

[Thermal Sight has reached LVL: 3]

Bob had managed to kill quite a few, only needing me to step in twice to keep him from taking any lethal blows.

And after each time he had killed a party and I had refilled my mana pool, I spent it all improving my skill at making blood daggers.

Although I didn't get a single level-up in my blood shaping skill, I managed to figure out something new about it.

Foregoing using siphon for the little amount of EXP and stats I would've gotten. I tested out how I could improve the blood daggers.

First I had tried to combine my blood with that of others, while it did work for some reason, there was a sharp resistance when fusing the blood and the result simply wasn't cost-effective compared to just using more of the same blood.

The second thing I found out was that enhancing already constructed blood daggers cost even more than the initial cost of making them. So the most efficient way to make them was with an immediate larger amount of blood coming from the same race.

Discarding the first blood dagger since it had dulled, Bob was now carrying the best dagger of the ones I had created, although it wasn't all that better.

I could've tried to create a dagger from my own blood but I wouldn't take the chance to leave myself in a vulnerable state where I lacked a large amount of blood while so deep in the rocky hills.

Seeing no actual reason to take such a risk, I simply practiced on the massive amounts of free goblin blood so conveniently laid out before me.

This newly acquired information plays into the idea forming in my head, so I only needed to check one more thing.

Pulling up Bob's status, I check his progress.

-Appraisal!-

Appraisal - Goblin

Information Attributes

Traits. Titles. and Skills -Name- "???" STR 6 ⇒ 7 Skills 4 -Race- Goblin VIT 4 ⇒ 6 Traits 2 -Sex- Male AGI 6 ⇒ 8 Titles 0 -Rank- H- DEX 4 ⇒ 5 Resistances

-Level- 9/10 INT 5 ⇒ 6 Health 36/38 CHR 1 Physical Resistance 3 Stamina 14/17 WILL 2 ⇒ 4 Magical Resistance 0.086 ⇒ 0.094 Mana 0/0 MAG 0.01 Mental Resistance 1 Afflicted - (Domination)

That's very good, with my help he has increased a full four levels today

While satisfied with his progress in his attributes, something I was even more satisfied with was his rapid combat improvements.

I don't know if this is a quality of the goblin race or generally the greenskins but their ability to learn and improve their fighting instincts is impeccable. But something about the intelligence of Bob and his skill with fighting seems in a way, abnormal, he's way more adept with fighting and weapon-wielding than any goblin has been with their weapons that I've seen so far.

It might also just be an additional natural talent of Bob.

And by slaughtering dozens of experienced fighters I've pushed Bob to the edge today. From it, he has gained a lot.

Done checking up, I decide to go through with the idea I had in mind.

"Bob, it's time you proved yourself to me again" - Me

"Y-yes masta!" - Bob

Seeing the eagerness of Bob wanting to impress me I smile.

Approaching the hunting party, I signal Bob to stay in the foliage at the edge and wait until I call for him.

Still marching along not knowing what was about the happen the goblins and hobgoblin simply continued.

In front of the party was the hobgoblin leading with an imperious air over the weak goblins.

At first, he didn't notice anything wrong. But slowly he realized that the sounds of footsteps behind him started disappearing one by one.

Suddenly stopping, he looked back. But what his eyes were met with, was not his fifteen annoying goblins but the dead corpses of half the entire hunting party.

Strewn about, laid the corpses of goblins, and seemingly the other goblins had yet to even notice their dead brethren.

But upon seeing the hobgoblin leader stop and stare in horror behind them they quickly turned to accompany him in witnessing the scene.

Suddenly figure streaks out from the treeline enters the opposing treeline, rending two goblins apart on its way.

"AMBUSH!" - Hobgoblin

Reacting immediately upon hearing the hobgoblin's words, the remaining six goblins drew their weapons and bunched up to the hobgoblin.

Each goblin looked like they were about to shit themselves, -oh wait, some already did. But the terror they were experiencing wasn't exclusive to them, even the mighty hobgoblin was also scared.

Not seeing a need for discretion anymore, I stepped out of the foliage and into the middle of the worn road.

"WHO ARE YOU?" - Hobgoblin

He screamed in the Rathian language, wholly unable to keep the fear out of his voice.

Today, by hearing the numerous goblin clatter on about useless things, I learned Rathian to the extent of understanding normal speech and could even talk Rathian a bit myself.

Not wasting any more time I let out my killing intent and froze the goblins completely in their tracks. The hobgoblin was also heavily affected by this, barely able to move but enough to begin his retreat.

"You. Move you die." - Me

Initially surprised that the terrifying strange creature before it could speak its language. But the hobgoblin still didn't stop its retreat and ever so slowly kept backing away.

"Instantly you die, chance to live you have still" - Me

Although very broken in my Rathian, it was enough to get the message across.

From everything that had already happened, he knew instinctively that he had no chance of escape.

Stopping in his tracks, he looked warily at me.

Suddenly disappearing from my position I quickly closed the distance to stand before the hobgoblin.

"You only" - Me

With that said, screams and blood sprayed everywhere as the remaining goblins were slaughtered before him.

Now with the terrified hobgoblin standing alone surrounded by goblin corpses, I call out to Bob.

And from the foliage appears a Bob who both looked terrified but also awed by my strength.

Looking at the both of us, the hobgoblin looked confused but mostly worried since he dared not anger me.

Signalling Bob to stand over by the side, I begin the next phase of my idea.

Surrounding me was the fresh blood of fifteen high-leveled goblins.

Calling upon my full mana pool that had increased with my latest two levels, I begin to draw as much blood I can.

Slowly, blood from each corpse and pool and began trickling across the ground towards me.

After reaching the base of my body the blood began snaking around and up my body.

Witnessing this sight both the hobgoblin and Bob were terrified and strangely awed.

Accumulating a great deal of blood I begin to draw every single drop around me into the air at the tip of my finger.

Not even leaving any stains behind on my body, and with the blood still being pure after crawling across the ground, the blood slowly formed a swirling dark-red ball at the tip of my left index finger.

Now with an amount of blood swirling in a ball of red, many times greater than ever previous at my beck and call, I get a notification.

[Blood shaping has reached LVL: 3]

[Mana control has reached LVL: 2]

[Blood Magic has reached LVL: 2]

I grinned with wild abandon when I saw the notifications, even though I had a splitting headache from using so much mana.

But accompanied by the notifications I felt a very noticeable lessening in the strain of my mental processes.

Not wasting any more time, I begin shaping.

As the seconds went by, the big ball of dark-red goblin blood began shrinking and take shape.

Slowly but surely, a vibrant crimson dagger began taking form.

And before long, a beautiful crimson dagger floated before me.

Grasping it out of the air, I steady myself as not to falter to my mana deprivation and mental strain.

Quickly regaining my composure, I inspect the dagger.

Wanting to see the sharpness, I slice it across my carapace.

I became immensely surprised as it quite easily cut through it.

Using a bit of control over my own blood to stop the bleeding, I also use healing surge to begin healing the wound.

The hardness of the dagger was also impeccable.

Done inspecting my work, I look to Bob who was staring at me with astonishment.

"It's yours, Bob" - Me

Almost unable to keep his excitement in check, he approached me and tentatively took the dagger with both hands as if it was some priced artifact.

Looking back to the hobgoblin, I wonder.

While I could maybe have tried to mind control the hobgoblin, it would've probably taken up a lot of mana to hold the mind control.

Also the fact of how smart the hobgoblin was, properly meant that he would be much harder to control compared to Bob. So while I mind controlled Bob in his early stages of life as a goblin, I could raise him to be unconditionally loyal to me. He already looks at me as if I'm some kind of a messiah.

I doubt somebody like that hobgoblin would not already have set his eyes on grandeur as the leader of this goblin party.

Walking over and picking up a ragged-looking dagger, which was previously dropped by the hobgoblin, I fling it into the air and grasp the bladed side and holding it out prompting the hobgoblin to take it.

Nodding at him as he tentatively took the dagger, I walk away.

Standing to the side, I glance at both of them.

Satisfied, I speak out to the both of them.

"Kill or die" - Me