Episode 11. Predator Goblin (2)
‘Is it finally an ogre this time? If a silver ogre even had
Ted cleared his stray thoughts and watched the goblins’ transformation.
The goblin trio slowly grew larger. Whereas they had previously stood at a mere 0.8 meters, they now reached 1.1 meters.
And with that, they grew a little closer to maturity.
If the original goblins had felt like babies, they now felt quite like young soldiers.
As the light faded, the skin revealed beneath was—somehow, unsurprisingly—golden.
‘…Well, I guess it makes sense?’
Face Chronicle.
For some reason, at times like this, it was an incredibly intuitive game.
But then. An unexpected status window popped up above Ted’s head.
—Condition Fulfilled [1/2]
—Remaining Condition: Level 400
‘Huh? Qualifications to face Shamushion?’
Ted’s eyes widened into circles.
Lately, Ted had already been harboring great doubts about
A person named
It wasn’t as if he had contracted with the Six-Star Throne and disappeared either. Not long ago, during
Truthfully, things had been strange since then.
‘It said he had taken root in the character’s soul. But I’m a user playing the game; how could I have something like a soul?’
Moreover, the same went for the D-rank skill
Officially, there were no known cases of enhancement success beyond +10.
So no matter how hard Ted gathered information, there was nothing he could find out.
‘Hmm… well, I’ll find out when I reach level 400 later.’
Ted stopped thinking about it around there.
Because the goblins, having finished their evolution, began running toward him.
Kkiiik! Kkikkkik!
Delighted with their changed bodies, they charged into Ted’s arms.
Thinking he would hug them.
“Urk!”
Kkiiiiit!
No. The impact was staggering. They had challenged him to a contest of strength.
Before evolving, he could withstand all three rushing him at once, but now their bodies were quite heavy.
However, they weren’t strong enough to push back Ted, who was level 399.
Ted promptly lifted the three up and laid them down flat on the ground.
Kkihik! Kkihik!
They seemed to find that fun.
They soon shoved their heads forward desperately. Three sparkling golden heads popped up toward Ted even in the dark dungeon.
Understanding their intention, Ted calmly petted them one by one.
Soon, their mental states came through via Ted’s passive skill,
It was a shame a Silver Ogre hadn’t come out, but so what? He should just be satisfied that they had finished evolving safely.
“Did you guys come out with any other skills around
Of course, there seemed to be one more important thing to Ted, but….
Perhaps Ted’s wish had reached the system, for a status window soon rose.
Active (Mana Cost: 150 / Cooldown: 1 hour)
Summons three Gold Goblins. Duration: 1 hour
There was one huge difference: the duration had become one hour.
Unless forcibly recalled, Ted could now keep the goblins out in real-time.
But if that were all, something felt lacking.
‘Huh? What? No additional skills? Don’t tell me they’re just keeping Mimicry as is?’
The moment Ted tilted his head, looking at the newly risen status window.
‘Oh, so they give choices this time.’
Ted examined the skills one by one.
Its advantage was that it had no class restrictions.
Its disadvantages were that B-rank was its limit, and it used Ted’s mana.
‘Reject this one.’
Actually, what gave Mimicry its value was mimicking Ted’s attack power.
If it mimicked others’ skills… it didn’t hold much significance.
The second option,
‘This one’s nice.’
5%. It was quite decent.
Percentage-based options only got better as time went on. The stronger they got, the stronger these would make them.
‘Huh?’
But the moment Ted saw the last skill,
It was an ability that increased EXP and additional effects the more the goblins ate.
Ted opened the detailed status window for
—The now-extinct
—Each time they consume food with options, their internal strength rises, and their stats increase slightly depending on the type of food ingested.
‘It’s nice that it raises stats slightly, but it raises internal strength? Internal strength is EXP.’
In Face Chronicle, the word
However, there was no
‘Would you look at this?’
Ted closed his eyes for a moment and began tapping away at the calculator in his head.
With typical skill structures, when socketed and used, the
In contrast, with the
In other words, the goblins had to level up to keep evolving.
‘Actually… that part had been bothering me a little.’
The problem was that summons only received 10% of the EXP their master gained. Using items could raise that by a few percent, but even then it was only 15% to 20%.
But giving them 20% meant taking away from Ted’s EXP, so it wasn’t much of a gain.
‘Right now they’re B-rank, so they evolved at 250, but when they evolve to A-rank… following A-rank skill level limits, they’ll probably evolve at level 500.’
Them reaching level 500 while only receiving 10% EXP?
It was truly… a daunting task.
And reaching 500 wasn’t even the end. The Six-Star Throne’s skill structure could evolve all the way to S-rank. So to see an S-rank Goblin Summon, Ted needed to raise their levels to 800 or even 900.
‘Hmm…’
Ted had taken nine years to reach level 600 in his previous playthrough.
Level 900 with only 10% of acquired EXP.
For an ordinary user, it was something that would take decades, or even a century.
Current Ted, who possessed +19 enhancement, would be dozens of times faster… but even so, he would still be looking at several years.
‘I have to pick this one.’
For that reason, Ted ended his internal deliberation and chose the third option, the skill
‘And I just so happen to have something good right now… though I don’t want to go back in.’
Ted had seen
Those military dried rations were exactly the
Then the goblins could obtain internal strength—that is, EXP—the moment they ate that food.
‘Besides, those things didn’t look clean.’
Storing military provisions in a place like this?
Didn’t it practically reek of foulness?
It was less storage and more concealment. If so, it was truly blind supplies that couldn’t possibly be legal even if they had an owner.
He had been inwardly disappointed that he couldn’t take them, but with things turning out like this….
“Guys, let’s go!”
Ted clenched his teeth and re-entered the
Following him, the three goblins trotted after Ted.
* * *
Ted took the goblins toward the dead end of the joint dungeon.
Moving with a pre-drawn
Arriving at the dead-end cave, there were still hundreds of boxes stacked there.
‘Shall I open them all first?’
While some food boxes were open, many were locked with padlocks and such.
But Ted, being a thief, held two hairpins and used the
Along with that, he gained a small amount of EXP as well.
Ted, his mood lifted by the slight EXP, beckoned to the goblins with a motherly smile.
“Three Musketeers. I haven’t prepared much, but eat your fill.”
Kkiiiiik—!!
The goblins excitedly rushed toward the boxes Ted had opened.
And began stuffing the dried rations into their mouths in a hurry.
‘They sure eat with gusto.’
Ted watched the goblins with satisfaction.
It was still pitch-dark inside, but thanks to his high vision stat, he could roughly see things at very close range.
But watching them eat, Ted developed a worry.
‘When am I going to feed them all of this?’
That’s right! Ted intended to feed all the food in the joint dungeon to the goblins. However, the amount of food placed throughout the joint dungeon was enormous enough for Ted alone to eat for over a year.
But that worry vanished the moment the goblins devoured one box.
They didn’t feel full in the least!
Apparently, the skill
Rising status windows explained their meal.
That was no meal.
What Ted saw of the goblins’ feeding was, if anything, closer to
They absorbed the abilities contained in the food the moment they ate and swallowed it.
Truly a skill for predators.
Thanks to that, it didn’t even take them a few hours to consume the food in dozens of boxes.
‘But these guys…’
While walking around with them and observing, Ted discovered something surprising.
‘Their thoughts and behavior have changed a lot.’
The personalities of the three goblins had changed. And with that, each had developed individuality.
Whenever Ted opened a locked food box with his
However, Ilkkigi, who had been stupid but brave even during the Silver Goblin days, ate whatever he grabbed.
Consequently, his stats began rising randomly.
He even shoved spicy foods—which barely touched his mouth and would become poisonous if overeaten—down his throat without hesitation.
Ilkkigi, suffering from the spicy aroma yet eating over and over!
‘I used to feel like he was stupid every now and then, but now he’s definitely become stupid!’
Dukkigi and Samkkigi had changed too.
Dukkigi, who had simply been an attention-seeker, had become much more calculating.
The cowardly and underhanded Samkkigi outright deceived Ilkkigi and Dukkigi to steal food.
Something felt different even at a passing glance.
‘What is this?’
Ted watched them feed while pondering.
But it seemed he still needed a bit more observation.
‘Anyway, they sure do eat deliciously.’
Watching them eat like maniacs, yet with happy expressions… a thought suddenly occurred to Ted.
To think he had three such cute little gluttons?
‘Hmm, if these guys did a mukbang on a personal broadcast, they’d probably get pretty popular.’
Ted burst into a hearty laugh.
He had no idea why such a thought had suddenly popped into his head.