Re: Goblin Slayer

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*** 

Training in a small cave is evil! Or rather, not evil, but a torment, albeit a useful one. In one hour I swung my sword so much that I raised my swordsmanship percentage by 3%, and my head flew around a lot when I accidentally swung wrong and dropped it. Good thing it didn't hurt. Just a slight tingling sensation when my face slammed into the wall with almost full swing! Even during the amplification - speaking of amplification. I no longer feel pain when I amplify my whole body 100%. There's no rollback no matter how much I use it. It's true that when my mana almost fell over the red line, my body got really stiff and I fell on my arse. It was like it became harder for me to breathe, even to stand and look with my eyes. After that, I didn't dare to lower my mana below 50. But regen was surprisingly fast. Before, I didn't pay much attention to it, so it was just a matter of regenerating mana. But now, when mana became vital for me, I calculated the approximate regen per minute - 205MP. That's not a bad number, that's a good number. Considering my reserve of 790, that was powerful. A few minutes later, I was already running again full of energy and banging my head again....

- Ha ha ha ha... man, it's funny to hold your head in your own hands! It's like my body has a life of its own! If I didn't control it, I'd definitely think so. Although... I don't need a neighbour in my body, so I'd better not think about it, or what if? He'll turn up like he ordered? And I don't need him.

Ahem, I digress. The training was excellent. I learnt how to swing the sword with one hand and hold my head with the other, and stopped dropping it at every sudden movement. Though it took me a long time... and like a fool. After hitting my head against the wall again, I freaked out and squeezed my head tighter, so tightly that my hand was glued to it. Information appeared in my head again, it was not much, but the question: how do dullahans hold their head and fight with it was solved.

All it takes is... the owner's desire and a little mana, and the hand will be glued to the winged helmet. Actually, my head was also glued in this way, and I wondered why the helmet hadn't come off yet. And here are such things... magic, in a word. Only the head always tries to fly out of my hands with every strong jerk to the side. I could use them almost indefinitely now, too, by the way: there was a limit to my stamina, and when I reached it, my body started burning with fire like an engine. Eh, they fucked me with infinite stamina... then I'd have to sit on the ground for five minutes to cool down. And that's only a fraction of the heat, and I could have continued to wear myself out, so to speak.

But... now that I could look at my face, I stopped in indecision, holding my head with both hands. In the grey spectrum, I dared to look at it, but for some reason I froze.

The helmet's own eye sockets glowed with a red dim glow, looking at me... Slowly, I grabbed myself by the neck and began to loosen the mana boost until the helmet was completely free.

*Gloth.

This would decide whether the girls would love me or not... With my other hand I grabbed the wing of the helmet and pulled it slowly upwards, revealing my face a little bit at a time. The first thing I saw was a grey chin, quite human and masculine, then grey lips, not plump. Then I saw my grey cheeks and yes! My skull was no longer covered in skin and then I took off my helmet in one fell swoop.

What can I say... I would say I squinted at the glow of my shiny armour, but it didn't glow. However, I was relieved when I saw a fully human face. Tucking a strand of hair back, I could see slightly pointed ears, not as pointy as goblins or elves, but if you looked at it that way, I looked like a half elf with human features, a slightly oval face, and a nose of some sort. I was grey, but that was because of my second sight, so I couldn't say anything about the colour of my skin, but my eyes surprised me.

I didn't realise what colour they were... hehehehehe, yeah, that was a bit silly. I was expecting something like that, but I forgot that I was seeing in grey tones... but now they were human, well, without the horizontal pupils. Normal eyes with a red glow. A sharp turn of her head and a faint red plume came up behind her.

Well, also her hair had grown back a bit and was getting unruly, or was it the helmet? I don't know, but at this rate of growth, I'll have to tie a ponytail soon. Hmm, I'm handsome...' I noted to myself, smiling with white teeth. Already my hair was long and grey, yes, yes, I don't know what colour and I have to decide. And in the future I might resemble an... anime character, I don't know which one, I can't remember exactly.....

I've got a mirror in my ring somewhere, I took it for a reason hehehehehehe... Let's check the helmet.

*Hop* The helmet disappeared into the ring and I realised clearly that it was in my chest. It was like an invisible link was connecting me and the helmet... fuck, another weird thing, and there's no 'sudden' information. But, for the future, I won't put it in the wrong hands, for my own safety, of course.

Instead of a helmet, I now had a mirror in my hand and my head on my shoulders.

It was a little dark, but I could clearly see myself in the reflection. My skin was indeed a greyish shade, not Papuan, but like a dark elf. My hair was... a light silver colour, not white, but... like Hiro's, the girl I'd saved. The eyes, on the other hand, were the colour of blue sky... the lower eyelid was slightly darker. Eh... well, as they say - what you give, you take. I looked like a teenager, about eighteen years old, but I already had sharp, masculine features. I was younger, of course, but I will not grow old and my features will remain just features for life....

Eternal youth - in a word, I would describe myself as beautiful, I think 'bisyonen', is that what they are called? Though elves themselves are perfect in appearance, which I only wonder. I feel better,' I grinned to myself, putting the mirror back in its ring. And I smelled relatively normal-not dead flesh, but I could use a wash.

Hmm, that's an idea. I've long wondered if it's possible to drink magical water. Or wash with it? I have water magic, so let's try it, - I started to take off each piece of armour, starting with breastplate, gloves and to the greaves through the ring, taking it off, and then with a sound of *gooh*, the pieces of armour fell back to the ground. With each piece of armour removed, I clearly felt an invisible connection to them, and when I had nothing left of the armour on, it became uncomfortable, as if I was naked in the middle of a street full of people. My body had also changed dramatically: a pristine grey body without hair, normal nails on my hands and feet, a little skinny, not a jock, but wiry, I had cubes on my stomach, and my 'hardware' was lying quietly. But the 'arse', i.e. anus, was absent as a given.

Again, I was a bit dumbfounded, but then I just waved my hand. It's a good thing the penis is still there.

What happened next was already a routine action for me: I stretched my arm above my head, and then used a couple of Runes and imagined a stream of water that weakly beat upwards. With a jolt, the water, cold by sensation, rushed over my body in a rapid stream and spread over the ground. It's hard to call it a wash, but the experiment was successful, and I also came up with a second idea. Combine a runes of fire and one of water. But first, I caught a few drops of water and began to savour the taste. Surprisingly the water... was ordinary, with a flavour of gases, like mineral water, but definitely not it.

I created the second template carefully, stretching my arm out towards a wall not far away from me and began to create the Runes of Water and Fire spell. The two Runes created a vortex around each other in a familiar motion, the 60MP mana disappeared, and a slightly steamy, chaotic water ball appeared next to my hand. Poking at the water ball with my free hand, the water was warm... or hot, but it felt good to hold my hand in the familiar hot water.

But as I launched the ball with the intention of attacking, I saw it take a few seconds to reach the wall and burst as it collided with the obstacle, sending splashes of water in different directions. There was still a faint vapour coming from the wall, and the water spread out on the ground, soaking into it little by little. The wall was unharmed, that is - it had taken zero damage without any visual effect.

No cracks, no stone shards. The effect, as a combat spell, was... simple and not very effective. But I didn't care anymore. After all, I had a hot shower! It wouldn't replace the benefits of civilisation, of course, but at least it was something!

Then I was able to wash my body together with the armour, but it was a bit difficult to do it with one hand. It took quite a lot of mana per minute to keep the hot water flowing, but that was nothing compared to the pleasure I got! Finally... I was able to take a break from all this hell! Had it been my will or opportunity, I would have made myself a primitive bathtub out of stone! But damn it, that's what I really did! After all, I had earth magic! So why not give it a try?

...

Failure... one after another - failure... maybe it's because I'm trying to influence the stone and not the earth? For half an hour now, I've been trying to fulfil my mini-dream like some avatar, but I've been failing after failing after failing. There's earth here, of course, but you certainly can't make a bathtub out of it....

'It was sad and sad, and I wanted to lie in the hot water... to lie down and sleep, and finally - to rest! But what is not, is not, and I had to give up the idea,' were my sad thoughts when, after another failure, I fell on my back, looking at the ground.

However, what I realised was this: my magic and the magic of this world are two different tools. The same darkness magic I received: it doesn't have Runes! But the magic of this world I use everywhere with Runes! Here and with the earth - nothing works... I can saturate the soil, but I can not create from it the same earth dolichiku! Only the percentage of progress in the skill pleases my eyes, but too slowly. I have already given myself too much time to rest, and there is still plenty to do....

I washed myself one last time and began to put on the armour in the usual way - in a ring - on my body. However, I had to take off my head and put it not far away from me to visually check the appearance of the armour on my body.

*Hop* Ten seconds later, with a sort of quiet pop, the breastplate appeared on my chest and began to fit snugly around my chest, well... that's how I saw it. But the magical sight... which now works like hell, showed a little more: a thousand small and invisible to the ordinary sight white tentacles quickly braided my chest, and then sucked on it and disappeared as if it had never happened. As if they hadn't been there a second ago. But the discomfort that had been there was gone. And so were all the other parts of the armour. Well... it looked creepy... but I felt nothing, no disgust or fear.

I checked the cloak of darkness at the same time. Admittedly, at first glance it was delightful and visually mesmerising! Fine matte black smoke began to flow directly from different parts of the armour, gradually flowing all over my body until there was nothing left of me, and a large shadow was already standing in my former place, blending in with the darkness of the cave. Well, that's what I saw, at least. Magically, alas... all was deaf, I mean... I couldn't see anything.

I wouldn't be surprised if regular people didn't even notice me in the cave, if they even had a torch. Too bad, the attempt to summon fire quickly dispelled the spell and the dark smoke soaked back into the armour, but... it wasn't the armour anymore, it was my body! Alas, I couldn't control it yet. But when my intention to attack with the fireball disappeared, as well as the fireball itself, the armour was once again covered with matte black smoke. I tried running around the small cave and my shadow made almost no noise, visually I could see the dark ripples of running armour. But... my regeneration was quite keeping the spell in constant operation, and progress was slowly and steadily climbing upwards of 1% in a matter of minutes. I tried swinging my sword and alas, the sound of the blow was clearly audible, but the mana surprisingly dropped by 50 units in a couple of hits! So much for defence and deployment... hehehe.

Oh, it's time for me to get out of this cave. I had a chance to walk around and found nothing but signs of artificial origin. The cave is quite small, not even goblins are here, which is a sign that it is uninhabitable. Only one bear could live here... hehe.....

As I grabbed my head, the mist enveloped it as well, making it almost invisible like the rest of my body, I quickly left the cave and squinted my eyes, looking up at the bright night sky covered in stars.

'Hmmm... something I've been slacking off, I didn't even summon my sword, and yes I need to put my helmet back on my head and get it back on my neck!' - Which I did in a couple of minutes. Now my head was resting in its rightful place, and firmly, I hope so, held and turned freely to the sides, and in my hands was the familiar sword. This sword did not differ much from its past comrade in its glamour and pathos, and neither did its scabbard - it was matte black, but without Runes: the scabbard itself was glued on my hip, in a special place for them near my left hand.

'Hey, dead blacksmith, aren't they all a bit too flashy?' - I mentally asked the corpse of the blacksmith I had killed, clutching a matte black blade, with a red ruby in the garde and some red glowing runes, what it said, I didn't know, but as I poured mana into it, the template of the blade of darkness, the Runes glowed a little brighter, and I felt a faint connection between us.

Damn visual effect! And it doesn't have any hidden properties besides my recovery! Eh, well, I guess in the daylight it wouldn't be so foul, but at night the invisibility covers the Runes and the sword itself. Visually it's like I'm holding air in my hands - for other humanoids, but I can see the outline of the blade... hehehe, Arturia's imbaplushka from Fate Fate, her sword I recognise from thousands. Too bad I only have a semblance of her invisibility and don't have that power... but that's cool too, and there's no harm in dreaming.

'Evaluation!'

Dark Blade of Death - Aureta

Durability - 99%

Quality - good

Material - volcanic steel

Mana conductivity - 60%

Mana charge - 1000/1000

Nascent Soul - 1%

Monster Soul - 0/100

Human Soul - 0/10

Magician's Soul - 0/1

Yes, this is the kind of sword with a length of [90] cm and a name I came up with myself. Aside from the fact that it had a magical storage device, which I managed to charge to maximum, it was a progression for... gaining some personality,' I grinned silently, looking at my gauntlet. Too bad armour doesn't have that. By the way, here are the characteristics of the cursed armour...

'Evaluation.'

Storm Rush

Durability - 90%

Quality - good

Material - steel sand

Protection:

Head - 25%

Chest/back - 50/35%

Legs - 35%

Enchantments: wearer-adjustable, lightness, soul trap.

Yeah... oddly enough, the durability has increased, as has the defence of some body parts. As for the sword... I was already going to absorb souls to increase strength, but I guess I'll have to share them with the sword for its future development... hehehe... Maybe... well, *embarrassment* why am I suddenly embarrassed? - I'm stunned on the spot, amazed at myself.

Ahem, I have a goal of giving my sword a female personality! Loyal to me, loving and all that. And why not? It's not like I'm making a man. I'm already... walking around celibate, for fuck's sake! - At this thought I swung my sword with fury, and then a dark vertical blade the size of the sword itself burst out of it and instantly collided with the wood, leaving... nothing... yep.

The rage quickly vanished, giving me back a cool head. Turning around and seeing no one but small rodents, I put the sword back into its scabbard.

Ugh... somehow I calmed down quickly... and the rage was gone. Eh... unpleasant to realise, but the urge was safely extinguished... by a skill. I wouldn't say it was a bad thing, in the cave I was happy and running around like an eagle, fuelling my anger, and the emotions weren't even extinguished, but here... somehow suddenly.

Alright, let's consider that I accidentally activated a skill in myself. But the blade of darkness... made me sad. I realised that it was for beauty, and only in the future would it be able to do anything, but fuck... frustrating. As for the dark magic progress bar, it shifted by some 1%.

Hmm... I had already checked the physical characteristics, and they passed with flying colours, now it was time for combat magic. Has it changed? Where are the animals? - I grinned, bending down and getting ready to hunt. I still have a lot to check out, and I have all night to do it.....