Red Monster

Even though Darla was distressed and might need a break from her job with her situation, she could not do so. Her status was the same as that of the other female humans in the cave: slaves to them. A slave owned by Red, nothing else.

She had to leave in great difficulty to calm down. There were a lot of mouths to feed, especially after the battle. The Chief might change his mind if she didn’t do her job.

There was this urge that he should escort her, stay with her, but he decided not to. Not because he found it troublesome. It was for her sake. If he was seen doting on her so much, the people who hated him would target her, thinking they could use her against him.

It was better for the others who didn’t think so. Fewer hobs and goblins would target her. So Darla left by herself after a long exchange with his crappy human language. She understood, maybe.

Red was in a seat, his eyes closed while his finger tapped the table. He was thinking, assessing his current situation. The war was not over. With the reinforcements having arrived, the Chief wanted to strike back for sure. He agreed the war was not over even if they didn’t strike back. The kobold would keep coming at them.

That was an issue that he could not really influence that much. There was no way to dodge the war, especially for someone of his stature. Not that he worried about the war as well. As long as it was in the jungle, he was confident in escaping.

The trees were his best friends when he was in the jungle, after all. The issue was his ally and the latest confrontation with that tall hobgoblin.

The hobgoblins and the goblins from the other village would have a prejudice against him because he looked different. They might try killing him in this war, or sabotage him so he would die.

"I hope they are not stupid enough to attack me during the war..." He muttered.

Another problem was the tall goblin. The Chief had said that he bestowed Darla to him, but he had a hunch the issue was far from over. The tall hobgoblin would not act in the open, but they might do something tonight, for example.

There was a chance that they might act tonight, and his hunch was telling him they might come tonight. The hobgoblin’s last gaze said it all.

"I guess I have to prepare gifts for them if they truly come tonight..."

Red stood up, heading toward the storage. He didn’t get the weapon storage near the village hall, the one in the cave. There was a lot of abandoned stuff there.

Two goblins guarded the cave armory, and both lowered their gaze at the sight of him.

The pile inside was larger than the one in the main armory. The main armory had been sorted out, while most of the equipment in this place was considered unusable.

The first thing he looked for was the arrow. He only had thirteen arrows left after the fight. He picked up two quivers with more than twenty arrows inside.

After resupplying the arrows, he needed more throwing spears. It was just the same spear, but it looked like a shorter spear. It was more doable to throw the shorter spear than the long one.

Next was armor, as he looked down at his leather armor with a cut from his chest down to his belly. The wound was closing, but not fully healed. He needed a new one.

If he had to choose, he would prefer to repair the one he had since he had tempered the leather armor. That was the problem; he might not have enough mana. He recalled how much mana he used to repair his snapped bow. It took him more than one thousand mana. That was his current mana pool.

So repairing his current armor would literally deplete his mana pool. It was better to get a new one and use Mana Tempering on it later. It used less mana to temper a whole armor than repairing the one he had.

He found a leather armor to his size and slung it on his shoulder.

"What’s next?" He muttered until he saw a smaller leather armor. That reminded him that Darla might need armor.

He didn’t ask her to fight, but it was good for her own protection. He took another piece of leather armor of Darla’s size. Then he picked a crossbow and a dagger. That fit Darla: a loaded crossbow for emergency and a dagger as a hidden weapon.

After getting them all, he left the armor. The goblins looked up at him before quickly looking away. That was an unusual reaction, but then again, he had done something outrageous.

He killed one hobgoblin effortlessly before the war. Then he burned a lot of kobolds in the fight, luring two big kobolds with him. He certainly had built a reputation, especially among the goblins from his village, for them to react that way to him.

Red returned to the new house. Unfortunately, the house didn’t have a closet that he could use to store his weapon. That was a pity, as he had to pile his equipment in his bedroom. He could not work on them right away because his mana was recovered.

He checked his mana, and it had only regenerated to 121 mana. That was quite fast, but he needed more than that. It might take him two to four hours to recover his mana pool.

With nothing to do, he left for the main kitchen. A meal would be nice after all the tension. For some reason, the kitchen was still intact. The farm was ruined, but the building was still standing.

He entered the kitchen, and all attention was on him. He had truly made a name for himself to attract such attention.

Tob was inside, and he was sitting at Red’s usual seat at the counter that connected to the kitchen. The scrawny goblin got up, waving his hand at Red. He was giving up the seat for Red.

Red was glad there was no accident in the kitchen. He stayed a bit longer, finishing ten bowls of gruel. His eyes were on Darla. The tension on her body was obvious, as she forced herself to keep going while preparing the big portion of food.

He didn’t really interact with her until he was out of the kitchen. By the time he returned home, his man was already at 1061 mana. That was much quicker than he thought.

Red quickly started with his preparation. He first started with his arrows as he wanted to have at least twenty good arrows ready tonight.

It took him thirty 40 to 45 mana per arrow as he went through Mana Repair, Mana Tempering, and then Mana Sharpening. He used 850 mana for those twenty arrows.

That was more mana-consuming than he thought, but the result was not too bad as his skills also went up by one level. Mana Tempering reached level 3. Mana Sharpening, Mana Repair, and Mana Authority also had reached level 3. That was a good harvest for one session.

He took a break, waiting for his mana to recover before working on his new leather armor. While waiting, he ran his experiment. The stat sheet didn’t tell him his mana regeneration, so he had to count it manually.

He discovered that his mana regeneration was at 4 mana per ten breaths, 24 mana in ten breaths. He made a calculation, and there was something off with his calculation.

His mana regeneration was slower. It took him longer to regenerate over a thousand mana than before. He had 121 mana before and regenerated up to 1060.

After processing the twenty arrows, he was left with 450 mana, and it took about the same time to regenerate up to 1060 mana. That meant it took him longer to regenerate his mana now. He quickly realized that there was an external factor that increased his mana regeneration before.

Red recalled what he did, but he did nothing special. He just ate...

His eyes widened in realization that the food made by Darla might increase his mana regeneration. That was the only difference. The food gave him three more mana.

’Should I head back to the kitchen?’

He didn’t think that was a good idea. It might cause an issue if he ate more than he already had. So yeah, he spent all day with his preparation. He polished his new armor and new throwing spear, then he also worked on Darla’s new stuff.

The crossbow used a different type of arrow; he noticed that, and he needed to prepare at least ten bolts for her. After working with her equipment, he continued to work on his new sword.

When he used Mana Forging on the sword again, the tugging feeling didn’t appear. He wanted to follow his intuition when he first altered the sword, but that feeling just disappeared. He felt nothing now, and he tried with his bow, but it didn’t work as well.

There were two possibilities for that. That intuition might be part of the Infernal Berserk. That was the first possibility, as the skill might sharpen his senses.

The second possibility was his stat. During Infernal Berserk, his Magic Stat was over one thousand. That might be the reason why his senses were sharper. Regardless, he needed to use Infernal Berserk if he wanted that feeling back.

It was not happening because the skill was on cooldown. It had a seven day cooldown, so it was not happening. Even if it was not on cooldown, he was not going to use it right now. They were in a war, and he might need the skill for the battle. It was stupid to use his life-saving skill to polish a weapon.

So he spent the rest of the day familiarizing himself with the sword. It was still a little bit heavier, as he had to use it with both hands. He would be slow if he were forced to use the sword as a one-handed sword. He spent his day preparing for the night ambush.