I rode on top of Kumajirou together with Redhead, to our side, walking along with us, was Kurosaburou. Together we made an unlikely party as we strolled through the uncharted parts of the forest.
Lately Redhead has had improved her combat skills, however, to her regret she hasn't killed anything so she hasn’t gotten any experience.
Basically, her level hasn’t changed.
Although her physical abilities have indeed risen from the daily training, it’s a trivial difference compared to the increase in ability from raising your level.
Incidentally, Redhead’s level is 18. Her level increased by ten during the hind bear hunt which is good, but frankly speaking she’s still beyond useless.
Her current physical ability is below that of any of the common goblins.
Such being the case, Redhead could no longer win against the surrounding goblins who daily went out to hunt and by the mysterious power of the world had their levels rise.
The reason we went out hunting this time was for her to improve.
Redhead wasn’t equipped with anything special. There’s a high chance that an inexperienced person would mistake the performance of their equipment for their own ability, thus she wasn’t equipped with any magical items.
Her weapon of choice is a steel kukri knife and she kept three ring daggers for backup.
For defense she has a Round Shield reinforced with shell, the same item provided to the general goblin infantry which are [Normal] class items.
She was wearing her everyday wear made by the sisters out of hind bear fur and my thread, as well as a breastplate and a grey cloak.
Her forearms were protected by steel gauntlets, her legs were protected by steel cuisses, steel kneepads, steel greaves and steel sabatons. All this equipment together looks very heavy, so I enchanted it to make it lightweight and the end result is that it’s actually quite light.
Thus Redhead’s movements were still nimble.
Her first prey was an Armored Tanuki.
She was struggling a little bit against the defense of its back shell, but because of the [Job-Warrior]’s ability to do battle corrections, or perhaps from the results of her training, or maybe both, in any case, Redhead succeeded in dismantling the Armored Tanuki.
The meat was given to Kurosaburou to eat.
The next prey were three night vipers. Even though she flinched from the piercing gaze, she calmly assessed their movements and was able to guard against their attack with her round shield, and she succeeded in decapitated them.
Their meat was given to Kumajirou to eat.
Three kobolds were next. I quickly captured two with thread, creating a situation where she’ll be able to fight one-on-one. Perhaps they determined there’d be no use in escaping and set their sights on Redhead, challenging her to a fight fair and square.
The kobold was a monster that had superior physical strength, but the combat skills developed by training with goblins every day covered the difference in physical ability.
Dodging the kobold’s slashes, sometimes parrying their attacks, Redhead managed without having serious injuries and finally decapitated it.
After a short break, I released one of the caught Kobolds after confirming Redhead’s stamina recovered to some extent. Not to set him free, but to have it fight Redhead.
Although she had a few injuries at the time, Redhead once again cut the kobold’s body into pieces.
From the last kobold, I asked for the location of the kobold village before I had them fight.
As a result, I learned of its location.
While thinking whether or not I’ll go to the village if given the opportunity to, Redhead who had more or less naturally recovered her physical strength said “Next Please” so I released the next opponent.
Then the final kobold put up a better fight than the last two, but in the end Redhead sliced off its neck with the sharpest slash of the day and killed it.
After curing Redhead's injuries and fatigue, I let Kumajirou and Kurosaburou each eat a kobold whole.
As for the remaining kobold, when I was about to start munching on it Redhead told me that she’d like to try eating it too, so I grilled it and ate together with her.
But nevertheless, I was impressed by Redhead's adaptability. She ate monster meat without any hesitation.
Well, I’m not sure I could call the action she did “eating”. I’m sure no matter if it was raw or metal, almost anything would be gulped down.
Yeah. Redhead is very courageous, it’s a good thing because it’s something you should be if you’re coming with me in the future.
Ability [Mountaineering] learned
As I was thinking "Okay then, our next prey is…", Redhead tugged on the edge of my coat.
“What’s wrong?” I asked as I looked down on her, those blue sapphire eyes were now a dull red.
What’s more the once circular black pupil was now a rectangular shape resembling that of a monster’s.
Tl Note: http://www.9mmsfx.net/goateye.aspx if you’re interested - Vidar
Alternative colouring: http://s5.postimg.org/44d96unjr/Goat_Eyes3.jpg by Chronos
But they still seemed to differ somewhat from a monster's eyes.
Rather than calling them ominous, those somewhat strange eyes gave off a chilling feel.
Somehow, she obtained a new [Job]. Maybe because she ate the kobold, or maybe because she trained with the goblins.
Well, putting that aside. I tried to listen to her story.
Redhead obtained a [Job], called [Noire Soldier].
After greatly increasing their affinity to monsters, those with the [Job-Warrior] had a constant chance of obtaining this rare job by clearing the condition of "eating a monster they killed themselves".
As usual, I thought was I the main cause of this, huh? I really didn't feel anything like regret, so I thought nothing of it.
Having gained a new [Job], Redhead's combat abilities rapidly rose.
Although there is the outrageous risk that a [Noire Soldier]'s body would rapidly deteriorate and would soon die if they don't consume monster meat or blood at fixed intervals, let's just say for now that they need a regular intake of monster parts, but the growth rate of their combat abilities is amazing.
No matter how you look at it, she now had physical abilities equal to or better than that of a hobgoblin.
Her combat power couldn't be compared to how she was earlier.
Considering that earlier her ability was equal or worse than the usual goblin, she really has made rapid improvement.
Redhead who kept saying “Awesome, Awesome!” while she deflected the Red Deer’s two horns, kicked its body so it flew up in the air and then cut its thick neck covered by strong muscles with the kukris blade, was somehow cute.