Chapter 4
Chapter 3: Orc Hunt I
Ten mornings and ten evenings had pa.s.sed since the day they called me king.
I left most of the hunting to my underlings while I pondered to myself what I’d just experienced.
What I’d experienced was something impossible. Something that could only be seen in a game. If I had to put it into words, then what I’d experienced was a ‘level up’, or in other terms, an ‘evolution’.
What should I think of this hypothesis?
It’s not as if I don’t feel sad to have such childish thoughts… However!
I can find no other way to express it.
"This is a… fantasy."
"What is?"
Lost in my thoughts, I let out my voice. When my adjutant heard that, he couldn’t help but inquire.
"It’s… nothing."
Speaking of convenience, I’ve become somewhat capable of speech. And ever since the day I became a red goblin, or for convenience’s sake a goblin rare, the difference in the treatment the goblins had toward me, compared to before, was like the difference between heaven and earth.
Why did their behavior change? To put it earnestly, it’s because of the power I now have.
The law of the jungle. That is the irrationality of this world, the absurdity, the rule that was driven into me.
Right now, I may not be able to call my life comfortable, but at the very least, I am able to live unrestrained. Honestly speaking, being called a king despite only having 20 creatures under me feels like a diminution of the term ‘King’.
This is a position that I received upon becoming a goblin rare, however…
The surging thoughts within my head piled up even further.
Regarding that level up… I wonder…
Did I turn into this because I killed that goblin rare? Or was I perhaps already in the process of evolving, and it only so happens that I evolved the moment I killed it?
As layers of hypotheses began to overlap I thought to myself, "If it’s that, then as long as I wasn’t killed, I would eventually become like this." However…
If it’s the other, then if I kill something else I can gain an even greater power.
In other words, if I were to kill an orc, I would become an orc.
If I killed that giant spider, then…
No. I supplant my hypothesis.
If it’s really an evolution, then is it even possible for a creature to turn into something completely different?
But then again, this is ‘fantasy’. Nothing should be impossible.
By what logic, by what reason was it that my body was changed so much in a short period of time? I don’t know. The only thing I’m certain of is that this isn’t a miracle.
Hmm…
I need more samples.
Right.
"You."
"Yes?"
"Are there other kings like me?"
The adjutant-like goblin looked around restlessly, then it brought its ugly face close to me, and then said this.
"One there… Another over there… Two in that direction."
… Hey, aren’t there quite a bit?
But this should mean that there’s an existence that holds power even greater than mine. At the very least, there should be quite a few of them amongst the goblins.
"Is there someone… above the kings?"
Oh, this is a pretty good question. I might actually get something good out of this.
"A great king…"
Muttered the goblin as it shook its head.
Hmm… Seeing it shake its head like this, it’s actually quite amiable.
But a great king, huh? If it says that there’s no such thing, then at the very least, there shouldn’t be one to the extent of this adjutant’s knowledge.
I began to ponder again.
A great king, huh?
I came to understand this the moment I became a goblin rare, but apparently, these creatures called goblin are at the bottom of this forest’s so called hierarchy.
The small animals aside, the only ones beneath the goblins are those on the level of the kobolds and the slimes.
The goblins are a far cry from the orcs. And as