Re: Monster - World's Reversal

Chapter 6 - Ventilation Required

Once I've cooled off a bit I decide not to confront Rou about his nature as a human immediately. Currently I'm welcome in his group, and my position couldn't really changed no matter how close I got to him considering I'm just under Rou's hunting group in terms of status, and the other goblins wouldn't accept me joining that highest echelon. On the other hand, I have absolutely everything to lose if he takes it badly and considers my knowledge a threat to his security. If that happens, they might go so far as to kick me out of the tribe entirely. With these pleasant thoughts, I challenged Rou to another spar and beat him up to vent my frustration at being unable to talk to him. Also

[Job Up! Swordsman - Armed Combat [D]! - With some proficiency in all manner of weapons, their efficiency increases, and you have less difficulty learning anything related to them.]

[Skills gained:

Basic Elemental Control [C - 3%] - Can control the four basic elements of Air, Fire, Earth and Water, increasing proficiency in each drastically.

Endure [A - 0%] - END*10 for the duration of one hit. Can only be used again after the user is fully healed.

Call to Arms [B - 0%] - Release a rallying cry which boosts allies STR and SPD by 10%. Does not stack.

Electromaster [D - 0%] - Control electricity.]

[Abilities gained:

Slime form [C+] - Can turn body parts into slime. At this level, can reattach missing limbs, but not the head.

Mana Control [D+] - Lose less mana to the environment while casting magic.

Leadership [C] - +10 influence with people who lack a title]

[Resistances gained:

Bludgeoning [A], Water [B], Thunder [A-], Petrification [A], Wind [B+], Earth [A]

Resistance Up! Heat [A - A+]!]

Most of all I was pleasantly surprised at the upgrade to armed combat and the addition of Slime form. What I wasn't happy about is Basic elemental control eating up my 98% C rank terraforming and putting it alongside the others at 3%. Though, if it's the reason I have C and not D rank… I'm slightly more ok with it.

----- Day 27 -----

Today, I woke up to find someone sleeping in the same room as me. Odd to begin with, I've just developed a [Stench], which I would have thought would make it even less likely. She's kept herself a reasonable distance away from me, but if her goal was to make me feel included, she really didn't have to go so far.

It is a nice gesture though.

Thinking on it, she's that socially awkward one… Fu, I think it was. Yes, that would explain this situation to some extent as well. There are a number of rumours floating around about her meaning interaction with her is scarce and strained, but the only one that I can see being actually true is one about her fondness for rotten meats, since the others are mostly either entirely unbelievable by nature or easily disproved, for instance, someone seems to have exaggerated rotten meat into cannibalism, which can be disproven by bringing up the log of how each goblin has died recently and whether or not Fu was with them.

Practically the moment I repress my stench, Fu begins to wake up, and as is wrong and improper, I capitalise on the few moments in which her mind is working enough to respond, but not to properly structure those responses.

"Ah! Are you alright?! I'm so so sorry, I didn't realise I was going to stink like that overnight… Wait, why were you even in my room to smell it in the first place… Were you kicked out of the mains?

"Wha… Yeh, it just smelsh goo-here so I-"

At this point she breaks off to yawn so widely it looks like her mouth is about to split before regaining a bit of clarity and seeming to realise where she is.

"Eh?! Alaya! I-I can explain, I just-"

I place a finger on her lips to quiet her. Having a female body does after all have some perks. One of which is that doing things like this is no longer awkward. But anyway, it seems like she got kicked out of the main room where the majority of the lesser goblins sleep (to preserve warmth in theory) and came here because while she was wandering around she found an appealing aroma. Mildly disturbing that my stench was taken that way, but whatever I guess.

"Now. I don't mind that you're here, but could you please explain to me how you got kicked out of the mains? It seems to me a pretty harsh thing to do."

Casting her eyes down slightly, she quickly puts on an obviously fake smile before responding.

"Ehehe… It's not like that, I just wasn't really tired at the time."

Raising my eyebrows, I give her my strongest 'are you serious' look. Just that response gives me everything I need to know. This goblin in front of me is entirely too reserved to do anything against the others, and based on the nature of goblins and society as I know it, they're likely using her as a scapegoat for anything that goes wrong. If I wasn't strong enough, that would probably be my position too … I'm no saint by any means, in fact, I'm incredibly far from it, but my twisted morals do at least allow me to help people like this, just so long as it isn't too detrimental to my personal profits, which it won't be, because I plan to at the same time instill hero-worship in this goblin and turn her into one of my loyal subjects.

"You're sleeping in here from now on. Also, if you aren't going to give me specific names, I'm going to bash up the entire population of the mains because they did nothing to stop you from being treated this way."

She's bound to have at least one decent acquaintance in there, and even if she doesn't then from what I've seen of her she would never want to harm what she believes to be an uninvolved party… But that could in part be due to other reasons. Anyway, as I expected, her head shoots up and she looks at me with wide eyes, looking incredibly fearful… I guess it's worse than I thought, the most likely explanation for that is a belief that they'll all treat her even worse after I'm gone.

"No really! I can deal with it, please don't get involved just for me!"

Ah. So she considers all of them involved in some way or other… That makes this slightly more difficult. Hmm, actually it might be true, everyone does seem to avoid her, and that fact would indeed lean itself towards open mockery and slander. How troublesome.

"I'm going now. I'll make sure to tell them you're under my protection as well."

As I walk out and close my makeshift door I hear a quiet sound which might as well be called a whisper.

"Thank you…"

…

"Well, I would apologise, but Fu is my personal attendant now, so I can't have her being looked down on or scorned now can I. You will all treat her with respect and dignity, and if I hear so much as ONE slanderous sentence about her, you're going to WISH I could kill you. Got that?!"

The broken pile of bloodied masses of flesh in front of me nod almost as one.

"Good. Now, I'm going out for a while so I can get the rest of the rage out of my system and actually kill things. You have been warned."

Upon arriving at the entrance to the cave however, I see that another member of this tribe is venting his… Hold on, that isn't one of our hobgoblins. That and there are two other hobgobs standing with Kichi, Gobue and Gobumi. 20 odd other goblins are standing around doing nothing as well, with around 10 of them guarding… Five bound and gagged humans. Well that's nice, I'm going to have some human company at last.

I'm guessing the one tied up is the leader. That would make the most sense. Since that's the case I don't lose anything by stepping out and walking up to Goburou. No-one here can stop me if I need to make a getaway at the very least.

I can practically feel the stares that are on me as everything goes quiet. Not surprising really, I do look incredibly similar to a human, albeit a very diminutive one.

"So. What's the occasion?"

Giving the tied up hobgoblin one final vicious punch, Goburou turns toward me.

"Alaya! I was wondering when you would get up. Apparently these guys are the parent generation, back with spoils from their latest hunt."

"Well, the current numbers are sustainable, but many more would change that. The pregnancy rates of the female goblins should be enough to keep numbers up at this point, and I'm not particularly comfortable with the idea of raping and impregnating human females. In other words…"

I smile, not a pleasant smile, but the dangerous smile which all females are capable of. One which dares the receiver to answer in the negative.

"I'm going to be taking them in. I wouldn't be able to sleep without personally ensuring their safety."

I must have made quite a few enemies with this declaration, however, the opportunity to learn more about the world at large, and gain loyal allies is too much of an opportunity to pass up. Seeming a bit surprised, Goburou scratches the back of his head, presumably wondering how to break it to me that my request can't be granted. In which case I'll just threaten to beat him and everyone else up to prove my point.

"Well… I just fought the previous chief over that very same topic, but they're probably safer with you anyway. Go ahead."

Ah, so he has an affinity for humans… At this point I can't believe he's anything but another reincarnator... No, we aren't going to talk about my inaccurate prediction, shut up.

"Who are you?"

Oh? One of the new hobgoblins just spoke up. It's either a mage or a cosplayer, and with her life at stake I'm willing to bet good money on the first one.

"Alaya. Nature and elemental magus of the Hesperides race. Co-ordinator of the raid on the orc mine and chief scientist of this tribe. Nice to meet ya!"

"Oh. That's nice. Ny name is Sei, and I look forward to working with you."

"And I with you my fair maiden, but if you'd excuse me I must relocate my quarries to a safer location. Some of you may know that I built a bas.e.m.e.nt into my room. Yes, if anyone wishes to assault these ladies they will need to go through my room, and as of late I have been emanating a foul stench in my sleep, no doubt due to the racial backlash from killing sentient beings. You too have been warned."

----- 5 minutes later -----

"So ladies, how'd you get kidnapped by goblins?"

-----

[Name: Alaya]

[Level: 35]

[Species: Hesperide]

[Focus: Learning]

[Titles: Reincarnator [EX++], Kingslayer I [C - 0%]]

[Craftsman [C+]:

Skills: Golden Thread [C - 48%], Appraisal [E - 50%]

Abilities: Eagle Eye [D], Mental Mapping [A]]

[Druid [C]:

Skills: Healing Hands [D - 32%], Nature's Command [C - 79%]]

Abilities: Adaptable [D-], Aura of Growth [B--]]

[Magician [D+]:

Skills: Air Slash [D - 13%], Basic Elemental Control [C - 3%], Electromaster [D - 0%]

Abilities: Mana Control [D+] Regeneration [C-]]

[Armed Combat [D]:

Skills:Cleave [C - 86%], Swift Strike [E - 81%, Consecutive Raging Strikes [A - 0%]]

Abilities: Weapons Mastery (Swords [D], Spears [D+], Bows [E+])]

[Offensive:

Skills: Ambush [B - 32%], Bloodl.u.s.t [C - 0%], Call to Arms [B - 0%], Evasion [E - 61%], Venomous Bite [E - 0%]

Abilities: Lesser Leg Strength [E-], Natural Predator [S+] Vampirephilia [C]

[Defensive:

Skills: Adamantium Carapace [E - 11%], Endure [A - 0%]

Abilities: Stench [B], Slime Form [C+]

[Misc:

Abilities: Absorption [U], Dominating Presence [B-], Echolocation [A], Language (Goblin, Human, Orc, Kobold), Leadership [C], Muscle Strength [A], Streamlined [A], Waterproof [B], Night Vision [C], Sense Presence [D], Paralysing Breath [A]]

[Resistances: All-Element [E], Bludgeoning [A], Earth [A], Heat [A+], Paralysis [A], Petrification [A], Poison [B], Thunder [A-], Water [B], Wind [B+]]

[Traits:

Natural: Durable [D], Follower [C], Genius [D], Living Arrow [C], Merciless [D], Scholarly [C], Swift [D], Wall of Flesh [C], Wise [D]]

Unnatural: Accelerated Growth [R], All return to the Cycle [U], Daughter of Nyx [EX++], Natural Titan [U]]

[Stats:]

[STR: 48]

[END: 103]

[WIS: 142]

[INT: 143]

[SPD: 103]

[Racial multiplier: 2]

[Free stat points: 0]

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