Leveling Up

Taking a small piece of rabbit meat from the inventory, I held it just above the goblin's pointed nose using a dry twig.

Sniffing like a dog for a moment, she immediately opened her yellowish eyes and swallowed the piece of meat with her pointed teeth.

Seeing how she gobbled up the piece of meat and even tore off a piece of the stick, I was glad that I didn't hold it with my fingers.

Taking advantage while she was chewing, I stepped back a little and as a precaution, stood in attack position with my sword.

Finishing swallowing, she looked at me and stood as if waiting for more. Despite her lousy posture with her bent back, I would say she is about 125 centimeters. The tattered thong she wore around her waist looked like it was made with animal hide.

Even if I say made, it looks like it was just picked up, torn and forcefully wrapped around the waist in a sloppy way. As for covering the important parts, at this very moment it is not doing its job very well.

Although she is female and has tiny nipples, her breasts are completely flat and skeletal. I guess goblins are probably not breastfeeding creatures.

While I was examining her thoroughly, she tried to approach me, but stopped suddenly when I pointed the sword at her. From the response that the Monster Tamer skill is giving me, I can sense that she has no ill will against me, in fact, it is the opposite. Still, I ended up acting out of reflex.

Although I am seeing it with my own eyes, it is hard to believe that she became docile out of nowhere. I wonder if this skill brainwashes the monsters to like me…

***

After waiting a while, I took out another piece of meat and tossed it to her, who deftly grabbed it still in the air. As if begging for more, she looked at me with pitying eyes, but unlike Kurama's cuteness, she looked a bit scary.

While the large eyes were acceptable, the two rows of sharp, yellow fangs along with the drool dripping from her mouth were far from helpful. It sends shivers down my spine just thinking about the possibility of meeting her at night.

Since I couldn't stay like this all day, I plucked up courage and approached her carefully. Since she didn't make any suspicious movements, I reached out to touch her bald head. Although I said bald, it was possible to find a few sparse strands of hair here and there, but if I were to count, there were not even ten.

Strangely, she also has no eyebrows, which makes her even scarier.

When I touched her skin, I felt a rough sensation, it was as if I had touched the slightly parched skin of an elbow. There was something I realized only now, she has a considerably strong stench. It is to the point where I involuntarily turned away from her again.

Since I intended to trade her in for another stronger monster later, I decided to put up with the stench for now.

"Although female, she is totally the opposite of the pretty monster girls I aim for," I muttered as I shook my head in lamentation.

Hmm? Come to think of it, is it really possible to achieve this? I don't think the skill would work on intelligent beings... or would it?

While I lamented that I didn't have an answer to my question, I decided to ignore it for now.

Opening the system interface, I immediately distributed the stored essence between strength and magic.

---

You have risen to level 3!

You have risen to level 4!

You have risen to level 5!

---

"Wow!"

Delighted with the increase in consecutive levels, I could clearly feel a small increase in my strength.

Seeing that my level had gone from 2 to 5, I couldn't contain my grin.

"Looks like it's time to change preys."

Instead of staying passive using traps, it is time to hunt actively. My plan it's simple, wait for more creatures to come and then let my goblin tank for me to kill.

But before I put my new plan into practice, I decided to name the goblin, from now on her name is Rin. Even though I don't intend to keep her for long, I think it's better than calling her goblin.

After that, I kept the corpses of the wolves and the goblins in my inventory and hid with Kurama and Rin behind a bush.

***

Minutes later, I deeply regretted my choice, Rin smells so horrible that I had to cover my nose and breathe through my mouth. In spite of this, I could still feel her smell impregnated in my nostrils.

Luckily, more prey actually came. There were two goblins that appeared among the trees and came towards where the battle of a short time ago had taken place. It seems that having a loincloth around their waist and a club in their hand is standard for goblins.

Obviously, the clubs they use are not quality weapons, they simply look like thick branches that have been taken from a tree.

Well, leaving that aside, it's time to put my plan into action!

Following my orders, Rin came out of the bush carrying her wooden club and approached the goblins. After a while of testing with Kurama, I discovered that I didn't need to speak, all I had to do was convey my intention and he understood.

As I watched, contrary to my expectations, a fight did not start immediately. Since that was the case, I made Rin try to approach them peacefully, and then the three of them kept shouting "Guii Guii" at each other.

I don't know if they are from the same goblin lair or just don't usually attack the same species, but the goblins soon ignored Rin and started digging the hole where the rabbits' innards were.

Together with Kurama, I prepared myself for a quick attack and watched carefully, waiting for my chance to act.

Taking advantage of the goblins' lack of guard, I ordered Rin to approach them from behind.

With a quick swing of her arm, Rin used her Heavy blow skill and hit one of the goblins in the head. With the sound of bone cracking, it fell limp to the ground.

With a shout, the other goblin tried to grab his club to defend himself from Rin's next attack, which was already aimed at him. But hindering his movements, Kurama who had gotten there in the blink of an eye bit his skinny leg.

Due to losing his balance, all he could do to defend himself from Rin's blow was to raise his arms to protect his head.

Along with the sound of more bones breaking, the goblin let out an eardrum-shattering scream. But despite feeling a sharp pain momentarily in my ears, I didn't miss the chance to split his torso in half.

It was an instantaneous death.

The more I use this sword, the more impressed I become.

***

Executing the same plan again, we managed to catch three more careless goblins. After that, no more prey appeared even though we waited until mid-afternoon, so I decided to retreat and go back to camp for a short rest.

Just for the record, goblins are a great source of XP, even though I have just reached level 5, I have already reached level 6. It looks like my luck has started to kick in.

Interestingly enough, even without being under the monster-taming skill, Kurama was still following me. Unfortunately, we were no longer able to communicate as before. Even a simple order was difficult for Kurama to understand, yet he continued to follow me faithfully like a dog.

While in camp, I opened the chests of the wolves, but they didn't have any magic stones. As for the goblins, they all had one, but they were tiny. Not only were they not even half the size of the fingernail of a little finger, they were very pale.

According to the knowledge I received, the stones are formed when the creatures die and the magic condenses. They can appear either on the chest or on the head, it depends on the type of creature. But when they are weak creatures with little mana, not all of them form one.

***

While we rested, I prepared some more roast beef skewers for us to eat. Although Rin didn't say it in words, it seemed that she had enjoyed it quite a bit. Probably because she saw that when Kurama rubbed himself on me, he got more meat, she tried to do the same.

But with her facial expression, instead of looking cute, it looked like she was getting ready to devour me. Her stench only made it worse.

As it was too much to bear, I took her to the river and even against her will, I made her take a bath. Despite my initial fear of this unknown river, nothing happened until the very end.

Taking advantage of the opportunity, I also took a bath. If I had anything to complain about, it was the lack of a soap. Even after the bath, Rin still had a lingering smell, at least it wasn't as awful as before.

But still, I guess sooner or later I will have to make my own soap.

After that, I went to check the clay pots, but they were not yet dry enough to be burned, or rather, they were still far from being burned. Since this was the case, I took advantage of the fact that it was still a couple of hours before nightfall and went back to try to hunt more goblins.