Chapter 273 – Re: Lapse

Day 9 (Cont)

"Do you think you can take it, Rou?" Kichi whispered.

"Yes, but I think you should be the one to kill it."

"Me?" He asked, looking between John and the sleeping boar.

"Sure. You see the look Aya and Kia have been giving you all morning? I'm sure it would impress them even more if you were the one to take boar down instead of me." John said, directing Kichi's gaze to two of the female goblins that had joined them on the hunt. They were in a tree above them, each with a bag of rocks, and were waiting for John's signal.  

Most of the goblins had been fawning over him the last couple of days, but now that he was a hobgoblin, most of their attitudes changed. It was as if they no longer saw him as first among equals, but as something more. Well, not Kichi, he was just sad he didn't have someone as strong as he was to wrestle during their morning training. With his missing arm, it was a challenge, but Kichi had no experience fighting, so John would always win decisively. Now that John was twice his size, it was like fighting a five-year-old.

The two girls would normally be giving him shy looks when they didn't think he was looking, but today they were giving Kichi those looks. He thought he would do his buddy here a favour and make him the hero of this hunt. 

"But... what do I do? It's so big!"

"Here, take my sword." He replied, handing the goblin the old blade. Now that he was normal-sized, he realized it was barely larger than a kitchen knife, a short sword at most. With his mana cycling and ki, he could strike harder with his fist than that blade could handle without snapping. "I'll hit it with some magic, but you can make the kill. Just jam it into its neck a few times and watch out for its tusk."

"Okay... if you say so, Rou." He replied, taking the weapon from John. 

"It will be fine. I'll be right beside you." John said, slapping him on the shoulder and activating a few of the skills he learned from Jean.

Intercept would let John take an attack meant for Kichi, Call of Shielding to reduce incoming damage on himself, and Hold the Line to further reduce damage to anyone in his party. He was curious how this would work, but he would have Invulnerability, Bind, and Darkness on standby. In theory, with Bind and Water Ball, he could just sit back and drown the animal from a distance, but that wouldn't help the others level up. From what he could tell, they needed to participate in the fight to receive the XP, though the party system was helping them significantly as well. 

He also had a couple of other things he wanted to try at some point, as his stats had changed and he now had two new blessings. 

[Blessings - Great God of Origin and Demise, Great God of Birth and Wisdom {Blessing Of The Omni}]

[Great God of Origin and Demise - Allows user to wield Demise Magic. Grants the ability Origin, which allows the user to learn other magic types quickly and efficiently.]

[Great God of Birth and Wisdom - Allows user to wield Holy Magic. Grants the ability Father of All, which significantly increases fertility and allows the user to have offspring with any race without complications for the mothers.]

{Blessing Of The Omni - Allows use of all DEN abilities and skills with reincarnators' DEN stats until local stats are higher}

He had two new spells from the blessings. From Demise Magic, an energy spear called Gae Derg that he could throw. It reminded him of the spear that killed Issei back in DXD, except it was purple and black. From Holy Magic, he received Sanctuary Circle, which, when activated, made a twenty-foot-wide circle around him that would damage anything he perceived as a threat. Both cost fifty mana to activate, and the circle would continue to draw mana over time, but seemed to be incredibly powerful weapons. 

Apparently, by casting these spells, he would increase his proficiency, which would grant him access to more powerful magics in these schools without the need for an instructor or spell tome. Though all of that would have to wait, they had a boar to kill.

"You ready? Go!" He said, pushing Kichi out of the bush they were hiding in. The two girls started throwing rocks at the sleeping boar, waking it from its slumber. It wasn't gigantic, but it probably weighed at least two hundred pounds. It stood up, huffing loudly as it searched for what woke it up. Seeing as Kichi was the only thing in its line of sight, it bellowed and charged at him, kicking up dust in its wake. 

"Rou... What do I do?"

"Get ready. This pig won't know what hit it." He replied, watching the boar's gait. Once he was sure he had it, he raised his stub arm and aimed for the spot. "Dig!"

A hole popped under the boar's front hoof just as it was bringing its weight down, causing it to slam into the ground and flip about wildly.

"Decoy! Go Kichi! Kill it." John said, pushing the goblin forward.

"AHHHH!!!!" He shouted, rushing to the fallen boar that was still trying to get its bearings from the unexpected fall, the taunting skill John learned from Darkness confusing it even more. He made sure he stayed close to Kichi, in case things turned sideways. 

The goblin jumped, bringing his little sword down on the beast's neck, slashing it open. However, it wasn't deep enough to catch its jugular. It reared sideways and slammed one of its tusks into Kichi's thigh. However, instead of eviscerating the poor goblin, John felt his skin break on his own thigh, and a small amount of pain. He cycled his healing magic, then encouraged Kichi to keep going. 

Screaming more, he slashed and stabbed the beast, its blood now flowing freely. John ended up eating a few more of its attacks, but it finally died from blood loss. They were both covered in blood and ichor from the fight, but John thought it was well worth it.

"YAAAHHHH!!! I did it!" Kichi shouted, waving the bloody sword in the air. 

"Yeah, you did! Great work! But maybe a sword isn't for you." John said, plucking the bloody instrument from Kichi's hands before he slashed one of them by accident. "Let's find you an axe, or make you a spear. If you are hunting more boars, you are really going to want to use a spear."

"Oh? I thought I did good?... This is a lot of blood."

"Yeah. It is, buddy. Don't worry, you did great. Let's get this pig back to the mansion. I have a craving for smoked pork tonight."

"Smoked pork? What is that?"

"A different way of cooking than using fire directly. It takes some time to do, but it's delicious."  He didn't have a smoker, but he could make an offset one easily enough with his Dig skill and parts from one of the barbecues in the shed. He would have to bleed out the rest of this pig first, but they already had a head start on that. 

Oh, if we can find flour, I could probably make an amazing pizza oven too. Damn it, I'm hungry as hell. I could almost just eat this pig raw right now. 

He licked his lips before he could stop himself, tasting the blood of the pig. It was delicious.

He shuddered, aghast at the feeling of pleasure the blood gave him. 

What am I turning into? Am I going to become a monster in truth? Damn it! I need a shower.

That Night

One of the many doors in the basement pool room led to another room with a hot tub in the middle of a stone grotto, and a second pool connected to the outdoor pool. John had commandeered that room and was leaning back in the hot tub, relaxing his tense muscles as he went over the day's events.

The first meeting with the male goblins and some of the women went okay. In fact, poor Chi seemed to become adopted by three of those women, all arguing over who would be his mother. Some of the other women were less enthusiastic, with one screaming in terror at the sight of Kichi, but Jean took her out of the situation and led her to join a few others watching from a balcony above them. 

Kichi just shrugged, confused as to why she was terrified of him, but quickly made friends with the two now adult goblins that Lina and Pellia were taking care of. Those two seemed a lot different than the more wild goblins, with a temperament more like Chi, which led John to believe that goblins might actually respond differently due to the environment they were raised in. He would need a greater sample size than two to be sure, but he wasn't likely to get that any time soon. 

Aqua was avoiding him. He knew this for a fact, as every time he tried to track her down with his Tracking skill, she would move away from him. She must have been using his eye to 'see' what he was doing, and moved away before they met up. He gave up after a couple of tries, not wanting to waste time he didn’t have on someone who didn't want to see him. Ee or Mi had been with her for most of the day, so he was happy enough that she wasn't alone.

The rest of the goblins had made decent progress on expanding their clearing, using the axes and saws they found in the shed to clear some of the brush back further. John would go around tomorrow and start burning out stumps of the larger trees, though moving the timber would take some serious muscle. He would try some of his magic out to see if he could cut them down to more manageable lengths. Otherwise, they would have to be hewn by hand. 

At least they really liked supper. All the goblins ended up with pot bellies; Stuffed to the point of bursting with pork, most ended up having food comas in the middle of the farm. He had to wake a few up so they would go back inside to be safe. He would have to look over the guest house tomorrow, make sure they hadn't completely destroyed it.

Speaking of destroyed... why are there so many empty wine bottles in this room? Was it the women, or was it Aqua? I'll check with Jean tomorrow, but I think I know the answer.

What he was stuck on was what to do with all those women. Some were still terrified of him, locking up whenever he entered the same room as they were. A few others, like Jean, were very deferential to him, to the point he wasn't sure if they were addressing him or some god. The rest fell somewhere in the middle, but were overly friendly with him, touching his arm or back whenever they were speaking to him. It was strange, and he wasn't sure what to think of it.

"Ahh, whatever, I'm just too damn tired to figure this out tonight. Let's just go to bed and try again in the morning." He said to himself, standing up and grabbing a towel. He half expected someone to have joined him in here, but apparently they respected his privacy enough to leave him be.  

Probably for the best. If Jean had offered to have sex, I might have taken it, morals be damned. My libido is going through the roof. I don't think my hard on has gone down all day, hell, I'm even thinking the goblins are cute now. They are so short I could really toss them around...damn it! Down boy. 

"Who has floppy ears? You do! Yes! You! Do! You have such floppy ears I could just eat them up!" Aqua said, slurring her words as she cuddled with her rabbit in the shed. She managed to get away from Mi and Ee after dinner, and with another bottle of wine, closed herself up in the shed with the rabbits. She even made a makeshift bed out of the lawn furniture, intending to sleep out here with her animals instead of going back to Rou's room and that scary horn of his.

"Yes, it's a big, scary horn. Much bigger than your cute little horn. See, a girl only needs a horn this big. Not that I know, but I know, you know. Yes... I want to be with him, but he is scary... really scary. Not cute like you. Don't tell him that... he doesn't need to know... besides, he has like a dozen women or more... why would I want to be in the middle of that? Maybe with Mi and Ee... they are nice, and treat me nice, but... what am I saying... that horn... is too much... way too much... waaaaayyyy.... too... mmmm... Zzzz" 

She passed out, the alcohol finally shutting her racing mind off enough that she could sleep.

A dark shape towered over the drunken goddess, having watched her from the doorway for some time. They picked up Floppy and put him back in his pen with the rest of the rabbits, then scooped up Aqua and carried her out of the building. It was late for most beings, but for the dark shape, the night was still young, and they had a job to do.

"Zzzzz... Why does it taste like pineapples? Zzzzz..."