CH 6

Good morning! From the goblin-smelling riverside!

It’s a great that I have a good sense of smell. Thanks to that I couldn’t get a wink at all. Fortunately, I don’t feel too sleepy which is something to rejoice about.

I guess it’s only natural that I don’t mind skipping sleep for a couple of days after having slept for around 200 years, but I’m not sure if this is normal or not, so I need to be careful from now on.

Well, it’s another beautiful day, and I decided to go upstream because of the smell and immediately, encountered a monster. Even if the riverbank is an easy terrain without obstruction the encounter rate is a bit high, considering I found one in 15 minutes. A big reddish crocodile clearly larger than me, is right in front of me. This is something that I would avoid under water, unfortunately for it we’re on dry land. There’s a river right there, but it’s a little narrow for a huge creature like this to live in so I don’t think that this where it lives. If I continue moving upstream, would I find a river large enough for this gian to live in?

The crocodile Opened its mouth and showed its sharp teeth, as if trying to intimidate me without breaking it’s gaze.

(Should I ignore it… or should I fight it?)

It’s crazy to take on such a huge crocodile, whose length is about 6 meters long including the tail, without any weapon.

I’m not sure what to do.

After pondering for a while, I decided to fight it. However, I’ll make this clear, If it’s impossible to beat this guy, I’ll immediately withdraw.

I know how strong this body is, but I’m not sure how far can I go with this body. So, I’ll use this to test it out

(Are … are, What’s this? I felt like I’ve seen this somewhere but I can’t seem to remember.)

[Well, Whatever!]

Slamming my fist that is protected by a hard, shell-like skin together, made a sound that’s akin that to colliding rocks.

[Guaaaaaaaaa!]

The giant crocodile roar as it sensed that my atmosphere changed. It’s first move was to rush to me. It’s not very fast though, swinging its body side to side as it comes with all it’s might.

It’s fast, but not as fast as I expected. It opened it mouth while it turn to face me as if he’s about to bite me. I jump at him and send a right hook as a counter. I hit it with the counter right hook on it’s lower jaw.

I feel good with that blow.

However, I didn’t expect for the crocodile to lose it’s lower jaw. It seems that my blow was too powerful and instead of smashing it. I smashed through and took the meat and bones along with it. The scattered pieces of flesh fell into the river and the fishes started to swarm. On the other hand, the crocodile with its lower jaw blown off, started to quickly as possible, scamper away with its tail wrapped around it.

Wondering if it’s alright to leave it alone and let it bleed all over the place, I decided to finish it and narrowed the distance. The crocodile Immediately snapped it’s tail like a whip and hit me on my side… I staggered a little but I wasn’t hurt.

Seems like there’s just too much difference in terms of power.

With the crocodile completely terrified, I had to make a choice. Do I let it leave or kill it – the answer was already decided since the start. Even if I let it go It’s not going to survive and die soon. Then at least I should make it quick and make it as painless as possible.

I chase after the crocodile that escaped and leaped to shortened the distance at a stretch, slamming its heads at the same time as I was about to land. It convulses for a while and then stopped moving.

(Is it really this easy to hunt?)

Once again, I’m impress with my physical abilities, but there’s one problem. How should to prepare this meat?

[How should I cook this crocodile meat?]

The only option was to roast it over fire, that’s probably the only way possible. It’ll take a lot of courage to it this one raw. And, it’s not the same as drinking water.

So I dragged the crocodile by it’s tail and drag it back to base, took a match from my luggage and set fire to the once abode of the now deceased goblins. Since the crocodile was so big, it was very difficult to roast. I took my first bite on the open-pit roasted crocodile meat skewer. The meat just tastes roasted. I guess it can’t be helped that it tastes nothing, just to be clear, it tastes unpleasant.

It’s fine until I realized that I was eating meat that wasn’t bled properly, sadly the crocodile is already in pieces.

(I’ve screwed up…)

I thought to myself and went to the river to wash myself and remove the blood on my body.

(This taste so bad, what should I do with this?..)

I ponder while my hands are on my chin, staring on the crackling, burning shabby house. I’m not sure what to do with it.

(Should I just throw this out?)

After some hesitation, I decided to discard the crocodile meat.

I wondered if do I even need to have three meals a day in the first place. I feel like “I could just eat random thing when I’m hungry” but it’s kind of risky especially that I don’t know much about my body.

(I’ll try it when I can afford it. That’s all I need to know.)

I’ve figured out where the water is, and I’ve got good idea about what can I do with food. If I am to talk about the future, I would like to prioritizing on obtaining ignition supply, but I can’t do anything about it. For now, I can only hope to be lucky and find some in the city ruins.

So, the second day was spent up exploring. This place would be my temporary base until I can find a place with better condition, So I leave my luggage and set off. It’s best that we go north as planned. I observe my surrounding while I walk to look for something that will serve as a land mark. The erosion of nature seems to be faster than I initially thought, and all traces of the former Empire are all gone, even the buildings were gone. I can’t barely see any traces of asphalt pavement, most of it are already pulverized so finely that it’s difficult to distinguish it from ordinary stones.

It might have been ravaged by war, but its too strange that all that was left too little. There should have been buildings far taller that the trees that are twice my height, but it’s strange that I can’t find any of them now. I wonder, what kind of war had been fought, this makes me more curious and interested in the final days of the Empire.

I already believed that the Empire had already fallen. I’m just not sure what would I have done if the empire still exists. After a bit of a walk, I concluded that it would be easier and convenient if the Empire didn’t exist in this era but it’s kind of lonely as well.

I wonder, if my family left some descendants.

It’s fine to continue up north to where we can see the river, but there’s one problem. There are two major rivers that flows from the Kingdom of Canaan down to Fleuretus Empire in the south.

One is the Hena River in the west and one is the Resonant River that lies along the eastern border. The problem is that the Resonant River is near the border of the Kingdom of Seizelia.

And, Seizelia is a “Magical Nation”. Magical nation tends to hate science. And to be honest, I don’t think that I can get along with that place.

When I was still a human, that nation relied heavily on magic that so much land of theirs we’re left undeveloped, leaving more than laf of their territory to rot away. As a result, large amount of monster spread, and mercenary who refused to use modern weapon, flourished and the country became a haven for monster hunters called “Exterminators” that are everywhere.

(It’s not like I could get along with then now, is it?)

I’m a bonafide monster.

It would be strange if nothing happens to me if I stroll around like this there.

I don’t want to be hunted, but my opponents would be humans, I want to avoid killing because I used to be human, but I can already foresee where if I don’t kill a human, they’ll organize a party and it might end badly.

Even though I was a recruit, I was a still a soldier so I know how to do things at some extent, so even if I don’t provoke them. They would still think of you as a threat. If I’m going to get involve, please not let it be Seizelia, I don’t want to be a “hunter target”.

On the other hands, I would rather go to the Western country – The Elf Nation. It’s a country where nature is worship and there are idiots that believed that “monsters are part of nature” and get’s taken into a goblin’s nest when they tried to practice it.

There’s a possibility that they would accept me.

Incidentally, the idiot who got taken into the goblin’s nest said [That’s the way our culture is!]. He was so hardcore that he wouldn’t change his mind.

This is why erotic books of [Elf x Goblin] are endless. That’s why the answer to the question [Why was there too many stuffs about elf x Interspecies intercourse?] is because of these idiots doing idiotic things, I said laughing remembering a certain senator protesting against the Empire while holding a porn magazine in hand.

The I remembered.

No. I remembered it!

(My collection… It’s definitely been found by my family!)

I feel like covering my face and roll around, but doing that with my current body would bring minor destruction to the forest. Lying around, hiding my face, writhing in shame, my calm thought just suddenly came back.

(Ah – , this feeling)

It was the same strange cool-down feeling I had when I suppressed my fears in the underground facility. It seems that this time, it suppressed my feeling of shame, allowing me to regain my composure quickly. It’s no brainer that if I have a sense of shame, this would hinder me to fight in my fullest ability.

[No way in hell! Idiot] I retorted.

It’s right to assume that the function works as a break against various situation. For example ”ANGER” – What would happen if I woke up in an existing Empire and found myself in this state?

The answer is obvious.

How much damage would a monster with an ability like mine would deal if it went to an emotional rampage? I think it’s safe to say that this function is designed to prevent that from happening.

I called it “Emotional Suppression Function” and wrote it down my mental notes of abilities.

By the way, it’s not that I don’t like the way I look now, nor do I have any aversion to it. I’ve always been a big fan of horror games, and my appearance is neither grotesque, and the performance is topnotch. Is it because I’ve been playing too many games that I’m currently not that dissatisfied with my appearance? Or is it because I haven’t found a human yet? Or Is it because I was conditioned that way?

Somewhere in everyone’s heart we all want a reality that is same with the movies.

This is a quote from a genius film director… I don’t disagree on it; in fact I agree with it but if it we’re to happen I would like to choose the movie. I don’t want it to be horror nor it to be a monster movie. I want it to be a hero movie. I’ve fantasized about things I can do with this body, but it’s on all the premise that I can build a friendly relationship with the humans.

I’d like to see if there’s someone who wants to get along with such a monster by looking at themselves objectively.

Anyway, there’s no negative effects in using this body, and for now, all I can do is train so that I can make full use of this body’s capability. Just running is a training, so for now let’s get moving and collect some information.

I continued up to the river, jumping around and I were able to reach the mainstream. But here I encountered another monster. A huge reddish-brown crocodile, which was clearly larger that the last one, probably because we reached the larger part of the river.

[You again?]

But the crocodile seems to have thought that I was a prey rush towards me. There’s no way that this would be a battle. So I kicked it aside and ignored it, continuing further upstream.

It’s already past midday, which would have been lunchtime when I was still human, but still I don’t feel hungry. As I continued on, I saw what looked like a man-made object in my line of sight.

I paused briefly and walks toward it, but I still couldn’t believe my eyes for a moment when I saw it through the trees.

(Is that a tank? Is this place a former military base?)

If that structure in front of me is a remnant of what used to be a military base, I would be in a bit of trouble. After all, the base is located on the west side of the river which would mean it should be on the east side from the Empire’s perspective. Geographically speaking, the most likely target of the base would be the kingdom of Seizelia, and the river would be the Resonant River. Additionally, just east of Resonant River would be the border which were skirmishes against Seizelia frequently occurred.

Humans…I’m starting to feel like I’ve been flagged for an encountered with a hunter.

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T/N I won’t have an update next week due to COVID and I would be put in a quarantine facility for 10+ days . Sorry for the inconvenience…