Chapter 11: Kabuto Part 2 and the Giant at the 5th Layer
Yeah, so, they hugged each other, I am not joking, they really did like that of a volleyball team in a finals game as suddenly, a bright light shot out and emerged out of their bodies without prior notice causing me to squint a little, and before I even adjusted to the blinding light, it already subsided and a cocoon appeared in which the trio Kabuto is hugging each other previously.
I looked at the white, pure white colored cocoon being slowly enshrouded by black alongside the snapping of bones and some flesh-munching sound that is seemingly being produced by the three bodies inside that are being morphed after the quite painful sounds died down for a second or so, the cocoon started to crack, first, it was in the lower part in which a foot more chiseled and more muscle packed appeared, and then in the upper part in which an arm similarly more muscle packed than before emerged and the two other limbs simultaneously got out of the cocoon revealing a quite bizarre sight.
The limbs up to the chest are more muscular like that of a very athletic basketball player but the stomach is still bloated that distorts the symmetry of the proportion of my assassin, I looked at him, a little bit dazed, he's tall, as tall as an average American teenager and has six eyes in his face representing the three eyes of the goblin I combined.
I stopped looking at them because the unsymmetrical body of Kabuto the Shinobi makes my eye bleed, and then suddenly, a voice was heard, it was a deep and beautiful manly voice I bet that, that will be what my voice will sound like just add five years my age in my previous world.
"My Lady, your command, I shall wait."
And then, a notification appeared dinging in my head.
Notice[Goblins "Kabuto" successfully combined, per the will of their master their stats will be repurposed to that of a scouting and assassination type unit]
I ignored the notification as I and even my subordinates suddenly looked at the man several feet taller than us, then my subordinates, even for a moment showed a flash of envy in them and immediately became emotionless again and they started to open their mouths and move their tongue while feeling their throat...
[Guide]... Did they just...
[Master, yes, your undead's loyalty has taken a hit for not being able to speak like the one you have combined and thus their emotions and competitiveness have been stimulated, expect a much shorter sentience gathering time for your undead.]
Cool... And the reason why can he speak coherently?
[Master, the goblins are a race who may not have the brightest brain, but they are intelligent enough to speak pidgin and thus, combining their brains made them as intelligent as a normal human.]
So as intelligent as me huh?
[Master, you know that's not the case]
Oh yeah, I forgot.
Ahem, I immediately got out of that trance, its the first time I heard a fully coherent language in this place and I confirmed that I can fully understand their language without some god named D downloading the world's language in my head, so I went and immediately instructed him of what he is supposed to do for me, in my mind of course.
"Kabuto, for your first mission, I shall order you to find any caves in the first layer that are suitable for being a base of my future army and draw the map of the places you have been through.
As a side mission, find any monster settlements or lairs without the monsters themselves noticing you, their numbers, their race, powers, and weaknesses, all of them."
I paused for a while, whilst Kabuto made a smile on his face.
"Future army... So My Lady is already planning to invade the forest and claim it as her own, hmm, hmm, such a great master indeed."
Where in the world did you find that nuance and come to that conclusion? I just want it so that I can sleep without mosquitos bugging me, but if he will become motivated by that misunderstanding of his, then I better not correct it.
And so, I just nodded without saying anything, as I continued.
"You must also strengthen yourself by killing monsters on your way."
For the first time since he appeared, Kabuto's expression changed that of a little confused one.
"But, My Lady, wouldn't that leave the corpse of the monster not able to enter your undead legion?"
What, we are not even in the double-digit numbers, so don't call it a legion, we're getting ahead of ourselves here.
"Worry, you should not, I shall not add them in my wing but instead use their tendons to produce armor, carapaces as materials for shields and helmets, and their pelts as leather armor."
Then, in a seemingly enlightened sage manner, Kabuto the Shinobi nodded.
"Is there anything else I shall fulfill in my crusade?"
"Find a suitable mount for me, and if you can find a human party, steal its caster's staff and store it in the most concealing way you can into one of the resource points you have located, and don't open it under any circumstances until I visited that point.
And Don't wonder past the second layer"
Another confused look appeared on his face.
"Why..."
"Hmm?"
"Oh, nothing, my lady."
I then stopped him from disappearing, as I raised my small hands.
"Let me check your stats."
And thus I did.
Name: Kabuto
HP: 31
Race: Goblin Scout (Undead)
Mana: 17
Stamina: 38
[Level: 3
EXP: 0/200
Stats:
STR: 9
INT: 4
VIT: 5
AGI: 9
DEX: 8
LUK:1
Titles:
Skills:
Unique:
Common:[Shadow Step] Let's one step and travel through shadows.
Passive:
]
Yup, an assassin type alright, though seems to rely on attack speed than the critical rate chance because he has shit for luck (not as me though), and that shadow step seems to be useful for him, especially on the infiltration of monster lairs that I ordered him to do.
"All right then, I expect your successful return."
Slowly sinking into the shadows, he nodded with a sneer, seemingly mocking his seniors that got agitated, Philo started to twitch his tail rapidly and Lyra nocked her bow and arrow, Kabuto quickly sunk into his shadow and Lyra missed her target, damn, this squad just became fun... Though only three of us remained... Again, temporarily though.
Anyway, after some time of waiting, a notification appeared in my head.
Notice[ Undead Kabuto has killed a monster, sharing 27 EXP with his master]
Yeah, that's what I'm talking about, with this I can properly have an EXP bank, but of course, I have to also kill monsters so that I can level up faster, can't rely on him forever after all.
I let out a sigh, now I, once again got the problem of the swordsman and someone who will be accompanying me as a caster, I mean, I morphed the three of them because that's the requirement and I have to guess that a complicated unit like an assassin will not be able to be supported by just two combined brains of mere goblins, so I got to make it three, but the problem is we lack units once again, well not like I will need many subordinates right now, I don't even have a place to defend and attack from, so I will surely find someone in the future, preferably not someone as small as a goblin though.
And the caster position shall be filled in by yours truly, thus the idea I have in mind a while ago shall be implemented immediately... But first, I have to rest, I am not undead and I can feel tired even though I particularly said that the goblin lover boy earlier is not a challenge at all because of the new skill [Dynamic Vision] I acquired, because it's stressful in itself to be able to see people in slow motion, I am mentally tired and this forest is scared of the undead so I have the liberty to sleep wherever and whenever I want... Not.
The last time I thought of that I almost got hit in the head by an arrow, so right now, I have learned my lesson and I commanded my undead who are still gaping their mouths open and close again and again while holding their throats, it is kinda cute.
I urged them to walk, so they walked while still doing so, I ignored them, shaking my little head.
[Guide]?
I called out in my head and almost immediately, a mechanical voice responded.
[Master]
Say... If I learned [Ember Magic] with relative ease, does that mean that I can learn elements, other than fire elements without someone instructing me how to do so?
[Master, in theory, yes, you can, but only the most basic ones, more complicated elemental concepts like thunder are needed a proper amount of proficiency to properly learn.]
... Wait, I just asked that to pass time, isn't that too advantageous for me to learn? Didn't your creator forbid you to disclose such pieces of information?
[Master, confirming something you already know is not advantageous in any way, it is just, after all an affirmation and not proper step-by-step guidance, thus I am not bypassing anything the god of the undead has imposed on me.]
Heh, way to go saying "you didn't say that it is against the rules so it must be allowed."
[Master, I did not do anything of the sort.]
Yes, yes, of course, I believe in you, I do.
As I am chatting with my Unique skill in my head, we saw something similar to my first location, the difference is that it is a cave under a tree and it looks suspicious, so I made Philo give it a little sweep, in which he did and surely, after a little while, a millepede two meters in length came scurrying away out of the cave...
Phew, good thing I'm cautious huh? I don't want to sleep with a long ass millepede after all, we then entered the place immediately confirming that there are no other insects there, I slept using the blanket on my basket (pun intended) that I am holding all this time, there are fruits in a top while because the rocks are not useful as of now, I just set them aside being covered in the impromptu pouch I made in the scarf I am using as a cloth, oh how I wish to have proper clothes.
I then slumped into the blanket immediately staring at the ceiling, not sleeping immediately because I was traumatized by some rabbit eating my fruits empty and suddenly thought. Undeads are supposed to be creatures that cannot die, hunger, and tire right? Then why the hell do they have the stamina? Or rather, why is their necromancer can feel tiredness?
... Well, maybe because of my low level, that's for sure, but is there a way to bypass this? My travel is being hindered coz' I'm a newborn and I am naturally a heavy sleeper only the fact that I have a unique skill that makes me evolve faster as a human is the reason I am not sleeping all the time, but the thing is, all of that sleepiness will come banging into me at night and I'll get knocked down immediately, its a waste of [Dark Vision] skill.
I'm talking to you, [Guide].
[Master, there is, but, in your previous behavior, I do not recommend it.]
Just say it, what worse can happen?
[Master, to bypass the EXP requirement and immediately level up the necromancy skill, you have to eat a part of an undead's flesh.]
Oh, I just need to eat something.
[Master, yes, an undead's flesh.]
... A-are you serious?
[Master, yes, I am.]
... Let me think about it.
[You'll really-!? Bzzt--!]
Hmm?
Anyway, what should I do, the idea is possible, it does, but at what cost? I'll eat a corpse's body part! Huh? I eat chicken in my previous life so that's no different. Idiot, that's called fresh meat! An undead's flesh is gray, do you know what that means? That means it's rotten!
But then, the benefit is still there, that's the point that I can't ignore, should I eat a corpse I will give up another part of my dignity, but if I don't I will give up a chance to speed running this forest game, I pondered for a while and decided to do so, why? Because of the benefits, of course, this world is a world where strong eats weak and illogicality eats critical thinking and thus I have no choice but to eat for unlimited stamina.
I plucked out the ear of Philo and put it in my mouth little by little, and yeah, it is fucking gross, I gulped all of it without hesitation as a burning sensation came rushing in my chest rushing down my stomach, OH MY GO! OH MY GOD! IT HURTS! IT HURTS!
Notice[You have eaten the flesh of the undead.
You have been poisoned.
Your affinity with the undead makes you resist the poison.
With the blessing of the god of the undead, your unique skill [Necromancy] upgraded a level.
You have now access to the ability of the unique skill [Never Tire], and your subordinates now have unlimited stamina and cannot get tired.
You eating a part of the flesh of the undead gave you closer kinship to them, making you eligible for the benefit, your stamina is now unlimited]
Yes! After that gross experience that I will never experience again, I finally got the benefit, at first, I want to explore the forest at night but damn, the mental strain of being poisoned is something I cannot tolerate, so yeah, goodnight.
Morning came, and as if I was cursed to have a very memorable experience every time I woke up in this world, the whole forest started rumbling, birds started to fly away and monsters I didn't recognize the howl scurried away like a cat without a tail, then, a giant appeared in the center of the forest as I moved into a clearing to see the monster that gazes down on all creation as mere cattle emerged, the grey colored, hairy giant, picked up stones after stones half as big as the Eiffel tower (but still dwarfs them), as if they are blocks of hays and place it in a circular shape in the 5th layer of the forest, the monster's construction work didn't stop for a while until the whole layer was encased in stone.
After that, as if nothing happened, the giant visibly shrunk, it shrunk until it was no longer visible as I stood frozen in place, my resolve, and my confidence, all of it were shaken to their core. I thought that... I can speedrun this place, but wrong, I was wrong!
I am too weak, too insignificant to even be noticed by someone as powerful as that one, I was preoccupied with my position as the next generation Rizal of my previous life and didn't realize that I am too little, too weak to even gather shit of dogs in this world.
I immediately tried my best to gather myself, as I recalled the idea I came up with about magic in this world yesterday, and immediately implemented it.