With my lighter spell, preparing a campfire was actually quite simple. I just needed to gather some small rocks, twigs, and dry leaves, and in less than ten minutes, I was already cooking my meal.
Preparing the meat, however, took a significant amount of time. I had never cleaned or prepared a rabbit before. The closest experience I had was cleaning a fish.
Because I thought the process might be somewhat similar, I spent several minutes devising a plan to avoid completely ruining everything.
I believe I failed spectacularly in the process. Removing the skin was a struggle, and I'm pretty sure I pierced something I shouldn't have.
Still, meat is meat, and after thirty minutes of roasting parts of the hare on sticks I had found, I finally enjoyed the reward of my hunt. Despite it being somewhat bland, I can say the entire hunt was a complete success.
Well, actually, it went far better than I had expected, since right after killing that diabolical hare, dozens of others appeared to pester me.
I think this happened because of that pitiful cry, which not only made me feel sad but also alerted a bunch of its friends. Before I knew it, I was surrounded by dozens of lesser diabolical hares.
I won't claim I escaped that situation through pure skill or because I'm overwhelmingly powerful in this low-level zone. No, just like in my first encounter with those creatures, they seemed to have more bravery than strength.
Honestly, beyond their horns, I can't quite understand why these creatures are called diabolical. Their power isn't much greater than what I'd expect from a hare in my original world.
But with them, I managed to grind the equivalent of two whole points, with each hare worth 0.1 points. Yes, it's absurd how little this is compared to what I need to spend just to buy a technically weak G- Spell.
Perhaps an ice or lightning spell would have been more effective at this time, since some of the carcasses were completely charred, but even so, it was all thanks to this spell. With it, I secured twelve perfectly edible bodies.
Better than that, even more than the food itself, is that now I know that I can easily cast thirty or even forty of these spells daily, maybe more. Even now, after walking for hours and repeatedly casting magic to avoid being overwhelmed by those creatures, I think I'm still fully capable of using fire arrows again, many times if necessary.
This though raises some questions, because in a typical RPG, your character isn't capable of using this much magic, especially not at level one. Because of this, I've come up with two equally plausible theories.
The first is that this body has some kind of vast magical pool or reserves, or perhaps a well developed magical organ. I still can't say much about the nature of magic, and this could be the case because I'm an Dark Lord, which, for reasons beyond my understanding, makes me more adept at using magic.
Alternatively, I might already be so skilled at magic because I'm a complete genius, and this has nothing to do with being a Dark Lord or a goblin. Or perhaps the spell itself is just extremely cost-efficient. I don't know.
With this, someone might say, "Hey, Bran, then this was actually a really good day, right?"
But it got even better, because the highlight of the day was when I was fleeing and dodging their attacks while trying to kill as many as possible. At that moment, I stumbled upon a small lake where after the slaughter, I could not only quench my thirst.
and in addition this also gave me a clear view of what my body and face actually look like.
And with that, the best news finally arrived. because now i'm aware that I'm not that ugly. In fact, I look strangely similar to a human child, but slightly deformed, with long ears. Maybe I'm some kind of malnourished, albino British child with cyan eyes. That slightly reduces my charm, though the cyan eyes are pretty cool.
Still, I'm not some kind of babushka crossed with an eggplant, as I previously feared.
This means real goblins aren't that closely related to the fictional ones, at least not the ones I'm familiar with.
Knowing this makes me wonder what other preconceptions might be wrong. Perhaps I could even be accepted into human society. I'm not that different from the humans I saw last night; I'm just half their height.
if I ignore the fact that I spent about half an hour trying not to be killed by a horde of adorable wild white rabbits, All of this makes today a very pleasant day.
but Thinking about the hares, it's a shame I can't preserve all that meat.
Before the invention of electrical solutions like freezers, there were only a few ways to preserve meat, such as dehydrating or smoking. But it's not as if I have an oven or the tools to properly make beef jerky here.
The tragic yet delicious solution is to consume it all as quickly as possible.
While I was doing just that, the same repetitive and annoying message appeared every time I swallowed something.
"You have absorbed a small portion of magical energy. You became insignificantly more powerful."
Insignificantly more powerful? Honestly, I can feel insignificantly more powerful, like 0.0001 percent stronger than before.
No, I'm just joking. This message doesn't mean much. Everyone becomes stronger by eating something: humans, animals, goblins, and so on. But clearly, that's not what this message implies, since otherwise, the opposite message could also appear, constantly notifying me that I'm getting "insignificantly" weaker every second I'm not eating.
You don't need to be Einstein reincarnated to connect the dots and realize this is likely related to how monsters, or at least goblins, grow stronger.
By eating other monsters. Or maybe by eating things in general.
With this in mind, since I still had plenty of meat to last me the next two days, I stood up, grabbed the nearest tall grass, and without thinking too much, ate it.
The taste was… well, grass. I think everyone has tasted this peculiar, common dish at some point in their youth, as it's literally everywhere.
Sadly, human physiology can't properly digest grass because it doesn't break down cellulose. Worse, eating a significant amount could make someone seriously ill.
So why am I eating this? Simple. I'm not human. Many animals produce an enzyme called cellulase that breaks down cellulose, allowing them to survive entirely on grass, which is abundant.
Even if goblins can't do that naturally, the Lead Belly skill probably allows it. Now that I have food and water, I'm not too worried about this going wrong. Honestly, it was just a few bites. It's not like I was going to eat a whole kilogram of it.
But then, when no window appeared, I immediately gave up.
It's disappointing that I can't become more powerful just by eating grass. But who knows? I'm in a fantasy world. There are probably powerful plants all over the globe. I won't lose hope.
Maybe human flesh or the meat of adventurers could be used for leveling. But… yeah, I'm not desperate enough to try that yet.
Still, this window points me toward a path to becoming something beyond what I am now.
This is very different from skills.
While waiting for the meat to cook, I did exactly what I had done in the shop, trying to interact with the skill list, just to see if anything would happen.
And it did. A new window popped up asking if I wanted to increase the skill level by one, to level [G]. But just below, it stated that the skill was already at the maximum level possible based on my current power.
This makes trying to grind hundreds or even thousands of points a complete waste of time in my current situation.
Maybe, just maybe, if I were taught a critical skill, like something that could heal me or greatly improve my survivability, I could justify trying to gather such a number of points. But it's not like there's anyone here to teach me something like that.
Even this Fire Arrow was learned purely by luck. If that witch had used a more advanced spell, I probably wouldn't have been able to buy it with just one glance. Thinking about it, I'm quite sure those two other adventurers were using their own skills, but they were likely far more advanced.
But even so, she wasn't using a simple version of fire arrow, but rather a much more advanced and powerful version than the one that I can use... Does that mean I can only learn spells? Or maybe I'm just more apt or talented at learning magical skills?
Damn, I really need to find some monster or goblinoid society. I need to learn about this world, about goblins, about the system. I have this ridiculously overpowered skill that lets me instantly understand all kinds of signs, and I'm not even using it.
It's obvious how powerful this is, right? Literally every piece of human knowledge is expressed through signs. Letters, symbols, even pieces of art that convey something from their creators.
Okay, maybe I'm overestimating the actual power of this skill, but if what I think is true, I could be a genius in math, engineering, or even magic.
I can imagine myself fully understanding the most ancient and sacred symbol in a book crafted by the combined knowledge of hundreds of dragons, a book that teaches immortality. Then I'd calmly present the results of my "grueling research" to the Arch Wizard of the Institute, becoming the rising star of the entire place, guiding both new and old generations into a new era of magical research.
Alright, enough with the delusions. But still, it could happen. Maybe.
Beyond that, such power could easily make me indispensable to certain factions, even without mentioning my Dark Lord title. Which I'm completely reluctant to even say aloud.
I still don't know what this title means or why it was given to me. If a dangerous being detects me as this ominous figure called the Dark Lord, the consequences could be unpredictable.
If they are favorable, this could mean an indifferent attitude, or perhaps even an allied one, which could be someone who could offer to me a place in pursuit of their own ambitions of power or to fulfill some ideology.
But the problem is if they're hostile, which is more likely, and if this happens, then the sky is the limit for how screwed I could be.
"You have absorbed a small portion of magical energy. You became insignificantly more powerful."
Isn't there a way to just disable these unbearable notifications? every single time!
a little annoyed by not being capable of simply enjoying this simple meal with my thoughts without this useless system constantly repeating something I already knew, I came back to reality and then realized that someone was watching me less than two meters away
Wait, why is there a green figure behind that tree? Is it… Actually, another goblin? with this I quickly stood up, but as soon as I did, the figure promptly hid.
Is this some kind of scout? Or was she just eyeing my food?
Well, it would be good to meet someone of my own kind. And she looks… strangely cute. Anyway, it doesn't hurt to try.
"Hey! Green Goblin!" Green Goblin?
she's not coming back.. maybe she's scared of me?
"You… Want some food? I have, like, nine other hares just waiting to be cleaned."
I picked up one of the hare carcasses, still in the state it was when killed to show to her. and as I started walking, I realized she was no longer behind the tree but less than a meter away from me. Before I could react, she snatched the hare's corpse from my hand with her mouth, nearly biting one of my fingers.
i couldn't stop a low but acute scream, slightly feminine of coming out of my mouth when this happened
And instantly, as if she'd forgotten I was even there, she began devouring the entire carcass, skin and all.
I was stunned watching this.
In less than thirty seconds she had finished eating the entire thing.
"H… how?" Is she just acting like a snake right now? Maybe she did it because eating the entire body gives more xp?
Then the female goblin, whom I now noticed was wearing simple, dirty rags as a dress, sat down on the ground, put her hand on her stomach, and said,
"Phew!, and I here worried that you were just saying that to kidnap me. Hey, can you give me another one? I have not eaten for like two days"
…
"Hey, you're hearing me?.. Hey?"