It is currently Wednesday. It’s been 5 days since the start of my Otherworld training. True to my cheats I'm showing astounding growth. I don't just train my combat skills, actually, I was more focused on learning as many skills as possible. Once a skill is learned, training it is pretty easy, learning a skill is like discovering a muscle for the first time in a sense.

[Assimilation]: Like in the novel I learned this by imagining to be one with my surroundings, it’s a stealth skill. I also tried to learn Stealth but somehow that didn't work. Meditation really helped me with this one.

[Fast reading]: I read as fast as I could... somehow it worked. Thanks to my high intelligence stat I can even remember almost everything now!

[Voice change]: I used my phone and PC to listen to myself as I tried out different voices, high, low, thin, thick, falsetto, etc.

[Charming]: This was pretty embarrassing. I stood in front of a mirror and spoke to myself while striking different poses. If possible, I don't want to repeat this experience...

[Acting]: A much less embarrassing experience in front of the mirror.

[Body Control]: To not kill people in the real world accidentally I did my best to control my strength, slow movement, half power punches, etc.

[Sense Control]: This too was aided a lot by Meditation. When I learned it, it was fused with Body Control. But I can still feel its effects. I can shut off outside noise easily when meditating and strengthen it when trying to find monsters or listen to someone far away.

[Presence Detection]: I got this by always checking for monsters nearby.

As I said learning a skill is like discovering a new muscle, now that I have the skills, I can use them easily without having to concentrate on them. I can now train Charming by talking to people for example. The Social Skills all fused into [Social Mastery], this makes it much easier to keep up with my status. When I checked [Social Mastery] with my Appraisal, it showed me each skill that went into it, I assume if I learn more social skills, they would also get added in this, it’s a bit similar to the martial art skills.

I spent most of my time in the barrier of my fantasy world house. This way I could hunt any stray monsters while training my skills, I had no real reason to leave my spot yet. My training is going well and learning the skills has been pretty efficient so far. My body transformation is also going well, after 5 days I can proudly say I have not only reached a normal weight but on some parts, you can see some muscle definition! I planned to go back to school at first since the changes weren't as drastic, but going back like this would really cause me major problems so I let the school know that I am extremely ill and can't return to school this week. This is most likely thanks to our lord and savior the acting skill.

Among my various prey, some of them dropped a decent set of armor for me to use thanks to my high luck stat. The armor is dark red and looks somewhat menacing, but it’s pretty cool. It's exactly what you would imagine a fantasy demonic dark knight to wear. I am finally thinking of leaving the barrier and sneaking to the outer parts of the forest and train properly. I can somewhat guess which way is leading me outside due to monsters that appeared. While they were all too strong for me, the stronger ones came all from the same directions while the weaker ones from the other. Though it wasn't much of a difference.

I concentrate on my hearing to see if there are any monsters nearby, I could kill from inside my barrier before leaving and...

"--aah!"

I hear a scream? It came from the direction I deemed as the way outside. I couldn't make out if it was really human though, but just in case I want to check it out. I have (maybe) a basic to a decent level of proficiency in Assimilation so I shouldn't get noticed by any monsters on the way, I also go around them with Presence Detection, I am still a bit scared... Maybe I shouldn't have left?

After a while, I can hear the source of the voice again. Now it’s just some huffing and puffing. She seems to be a woman and very out of breath. Oh, I found her! She just ran behind a slightly bigger tree and fell to her knees, leaning back on the tree. 6 Goblin have been chasing her and it looks like she can't run anymore. Oh, she closed her eyes and put her head between her hands, did she maybe give up on her life?

Name

Goblin Elite

Level

120

Magic

100

Strength

1500

Defense

1000

Agility

1500

Intelligence

100

Luck

100

I take a big breath, take out my Heavenly Sword and as silently as my body allows me, I dash towards the goblins that are about to reach the tree with the woman on its other side.

"Kuah!"

"Tsk"

I'm most definitely not used to fighting outside yet, I thought I could assassinate a goblin without letting it make a sound, now the other 5 turned to me. But that's not a problem, for the current me these guys are nothing but weaklings!

While I still have the initiative I dash towards the leftmost Goblin and easily behead him. 4 Left.

"Kuh! Kuh!"

One of them shouts mean words in goblinish? And they attack me as a group. It is my first time fighting Goblin Elite but they might be a good way to learn the Dodge or Evade skill and maybe some other combat skills too. I must be pretty far outside for these guys to appear.

Mmm, this is an easy victory, I behead one after the other and all 4 goblins are quickly dead. Leaving only their item drops behind. Rank D monster cores, daggers, armor pieces, and a few random rare drops.

I walk to the other side of the tree and the woman is still crouched together.

"Umm, Hel--"

"KYAAA!"

D-Did she just go 'kyaa'? I almost forgot during my grind obsession but this is really a Light Novel world, maybe everyone will behave like they are in a novel? Then My body control might have been for nothing, after all in the novel people were just like "oh wow you are so cool" when the character jumped down tens of meters and lifted cars with a single hand but I digress.

"Are you ok?"

She stares at me in a very frightened way and without changing her position asks me

"You, umm, w-who are you?"

Ah, she is totally scared of me.

"My name is Hiro Fukuda"

"...Silvia"

I must look really suspicious huh? But that's no problem for me, with the power Charming on my side anything can be solved!

"I've already dealt with the Goblins, no need to be worried anymore"

And now! Together with the power of a beautiful smile I gently help her stand up! Oh, she is blushing, nice work Charming-san! No, wait what's wrong with my internal thought, why did I just add a -san? Weird... Anyways let’s just ignore it for now! It’s not like I'm turning into a JP main character or something.

"Did you really defeat all of the Goblin Elites? Alone?"

"Umu! There were just 5 left and I had the Initiative with my surprise attack so it was manageable."

Actually, it was pretty easy and there were 6 but she probably wouldn't believe me if I said that.

"Eh? Eeh? A-Amazing!"

She held my empty hand with both her hands and announced loudly. Wow, she really switches easily, shouldn't you worry about being heard by other monsters? Also, I feel like she has stars in her eyes, is this the power of a dense protagonist combined with the harem genre?! No wait it’s not like she is in love with me from this already, that'd be ridiculous even for that standard.

Ah right, now that she stands, I can finally see her full body, let’s see. She has quite a nice body form. Dark green straight hair up to her shoulders. Yep, that's a fantasy hair color right there, well unless they dye their here too, but that would be pretty disappointing, the original novel also didn't have anything like that mentioned either. Her eyes are also dark green, just much darker. She has big glasses, which somehow didn't fall off during her run? Brown shoes, a green skirt with a white corset and top above. She also has a dark blue jacket and a brown bag. I can see a few vials and an herb bag? She is probably an Apothecary or Alchemist or something along those lines.

"Umm Hiro-sama!"

"Huh? Yes?"

Wow, she really surprised me with her loud voice, also why is she still holding my hand? Not that I'm complaining, as expected of a novel character she is quite the beauty.

"I know this is a lot to ask but c-could you escort me out of here?"

"Sure"

"Obviously I am willing to pay Hiro-sama for it once we're back in the city!"

"Ah, don't worry about that, for Silvia I can do this much."

At my smile, she blushes and looks down again, cute.

"AH! S-sorry!"

Oh, she finally noticed that she was still holding my left hand. Let’s grab her right hand again. And start walking, sword in my right hand and Silvia in my left hand.

"Let's go, we wouldn't want to wait here until we get noticed by other monsters, right?"

"Y-yes!"

I skillfully put away my gauntlet into my Item Box so I can hold her properly this time, shouldn't you normally think that I'm being weird?? Anyway, let’s not complain, it does feel nice after all. If she asks, I'll just say it’s so I can use Assimilation better.

* * *

On the way out.

"Umm, Hiro-sama why were you in this forest actually?"

"Oh, I'm just wandering to learn new things, and while doing that I wanted to train myself well, so I wanted to enter at least the outer parts of the legendary Black Devil Forest"

"All alone? Isn't that too dangerous?"

"I could ask you the same, I mean it's not like you're good at fighting, right?"

"Mm, actually I had hired guards with me, but we were attacked by a group of about 20 Goblin Elites and...."

She's looking really sad, maybe I should try and change the mood?

"By the way, you can leave the honorifics you know? No need to say -sama each time."

"Wha- I couldn't do that! Hiro-sama is my benefactor and a noble!"

Right, having both black hair and eyes is a rarity in this region. And since I introduced myself with a surname people would assume that I'm a noble from far away.

"But I'm fine with you leaving it out? If you're still uncomfortable you can just leave it out when you are ready."

I feel like the last part sounded wrong, maybe my conversation skill deteriorated because I had basically no social interaction for almost a week?

* * *

Like this walked outside the forest while avoiding the monsters on the way.

Silvia seems to really be an alchemist, she tried to get some of the many herbs this forest has to offer but was attacked before being able to get a substantial amount of them. Since I escorted her, I had her show me a few of the herb types. While I had Recovery Herbs in my garden, I wasn't sure how to make potions, while I tried to create some, I ultimately failed, leaving me with recovery broth and small herb pieces floating in them, which was pretty disgusting in consistency. All I could do was eat the herbs as they were even if that didn't have the same recovery power as a potion. It appears I need mana to dissolve the herbs for a potion. I still haven't received the Magic Circuits of the Great Sage so that's out of the question for me. At least for now.

"Thank you so much Hiro-sama! I will definitely repay this favor!"

"I already told you it's fine, but if you really insist, the next time we meet you can teach me some alchemy basics, ok?"

"Umu! Leave it to me! If you visit the royal Capital, you can usually find me in my alchemy shop."

The royal capital she speaks of is the capital of the Taluria Kingdom and her shop is just called 'Silvia's Alchemy shop'. pretty simple.

"For the time being I will stay near the forest and try to train as much as possible here, I'll make sure to visit you before leaving though."

"Yes, please do!"

After bowing and that she runs towards me and kisses my cheek

"Thank you again for everything!"

and runs away. That was pretty cute, I think I might even be blushing. Ok, no need to be so disappointed in me, I won't blush again!