36 Rounding Up The Rest
"G-Guruika… Gurik K-Kanika…"
Once all the women and children Hobgoblins saw the corpses of their men, they bowed and pleaded with the annihilator to spare their lives.
They already knew they could not win.
As they trembled in fear, the one who had caused such destruction gazed upon them with benevolence.
'Of course, I'm not going to kill them!' Rey thought to himself.
If he did that, how was he any different from a mindless monster?
'Even Hobgoblins have enough sense to spare their enemies and domesticate them. How can I display any lesser level of intelligence?'
Right now, Rey already had a training spot in the Sixth Floor.
He only descended to the Seventh for some EXP, and also to test out his Skills.
'And I think I've been able to make sufficient progress for now.'
Killing off the rest of the Hobgoblins would be a waste.
'Instead, I should leave them here so they can just repopulate and produce more adults for me to kill later on.'
Hobgoblin Adults gave more EXP, so the only ones worth killing at all were the women.
But women were necessary for producing more Hobgoblins, so eliminating them would be foolish on his part.
'Hobgoblins have a very fast birth rate, and they also grow pretty quickly.'
Within a month, he would be able to see tons more adult Hobgoblins.
'The only reason there aren't any more Hobs present is because a lot of these kids die pretty early thanks to disease, and even the most healthy Hobgoblin adult doesn't live past a year.'
Rey couldn't do anything about the latter, since it was simply the biology of Goblins. They had an extremely short lifespan.
However, he knew precisely where to start from when it came to the disease aspect.
'For one… good hygiene.'
He looked at the pile of feces and cringed once more.
'I'll have to burn all of that and teach them how to do the same.'
All they had to do was gather the feces to a secluded area and burn them.
Perhaps also teaching them how to burn their meat before eating it would also help.
'Striking Orichalcum together generates fire. They can use that to cook or roast their meat…'
The more Rey thought about the problems facing the Hobgoblins, the more he developed solutions for them.
Of course, this wasn't due to his kind hearted nature or anything.
He just wanted more returns for his investment.
'At the end of the month, I should have at least three times more than the initially expected Hobgoblin Adults.'
Small changes like these aided a lot when it came to these things.
Rey could see a few Hobgoblin children peeking at him as he considered a bunch of factors.
He had to admit, they were pretty cute things.
But he was able to recognize that even lion cubs had the same qualities, but would end up becoming apex predators that tore through their prey without mercy.
'If I was weaker than them, these cute ones would be feasting on my flesh by now.'
Such was the law of the jungle—survival of the fittest.
He didn't particularly think it was right, but he also had no way to say it was wrong.
This was just how things were.
'I was brought to this world. I might as well survive in it…'
That was his current philosophy.
Rey clapped his hands, causing all the groveling Hobgoblins to jump in fright.
They all gave him desperate stares, but fortunately for them, Rey only made this sound to get their attention.
He pointed at the corpses of the dead Hobgoblins and then used [Force] to attract a Hobgoblin that was closer to him.
The Hobgoblin corpse easily swept through the air and landed in his grasp.
Many of the onlookers gasped in shock.
They had never seen such an ability displayed before, and while many of them had fear embedded in their eyes, most also had expressions of admiration within their innocent gaze.
As children, Hobgoblins grew to respect their parents and other adults due to the strength they displayed.
Right now, they didn't have parents to show them power, and what they were currently seeing far surpassed the meager strength they had previously experienced.
As a result, many of the children quickly respected Rey more than they did their parents.
It was a puzzling sight, really.
'I guess they really don't understand what death really means since they're kids.' Rey thought as he noticed these minute details.
He could imagine human babies making the same mistake—though in different circumstances.
'Let's just show them what they need to do.'
Rey knew the women would catch on quicker, so he made sure he focused on the adult Goblins when making his presentation.
He dug his unoccupied hand into the corpse that he tightly held, causing stale blood to spurt out instantly.
Once he did so, he removed his hand and brought out a glowing red stone from within it.
A Monster Core.
Rey dropped the Core on the ground, and alongside it many sacs.
He pointed at the other corpses and used sign language to tell the Hobs what he wanted while pointing at the sacs.
'They should understand what I mean.'
What he wanted was simple.
The Hobgoblins should do the harvesting for him and put all the Monster Cores into the sacs he had provided.
It was pretty simple.
One of the female Goblins swiftly moved and reached out to the corpse of a random Hobgoblin beside her.
She took hold of one of the weapons that was lying on the ground and used it to stab the chest of the dead Hob.
~SQUELCH!~
~SQUISH!~
~QUELCH!~
She did this multiple times, until finally the maimed flesh was torn into multiple pieces.
She then dug her hand inside the body and brought forth the Monster Core that Rey desired.
The moment Rey saw this, he smiled broadly, nodding vehemently.
He then pointed at the sac, and the Hobgoblin woman proceeded to open the sac and dropped it inside.
'Oho! They're pretty sharp!'
Rey had expected them to simply drop it on the sac—at least, on their first try—but the Hobgoblin lady exceeded his expectations.
'Let's hope they're all this sharp.'
Rey nodded once again, smiling as he approached the Hobgoblin woman.
He could see her trembling—the exact reaction that the other Hobs had for every movement he made.
He ignored their fear and simply patted the head of the Hobgoblin woman who perfectly followed his instructions.
Her bald head was the same as any Hobgoblin, and to be honest… she resembled the males to a fault.
The only difference between the females and males was the bulb on the stomachs of the former.
Rey couldn't even imagine how the two sexes would look beside each other if the women weren't pregnant.
'Maybe that's a hidden reason why the Goblins ensure their females constantly remain pregnant. That way they can tell which is which.'
Rey knew this was a terrible time for a joke, but he couldn't help chuckling a little as he thought of such a scenario.
'Okay, that's enough fun for now.'
He pointed at the rest of the Corpses, and the rest of the Hobgoblins sprang into action.
The kids were, of course, more sluggish than their adult counterparts, but they moved regardless.
'See? They're so obedient and efficient!' Rey smiled as he thought to himself.
He would never have gotten this far if he had just killed all of them.
'Now then… on to the other matter!'
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[A/N]
Okay… I think maybe I'm going a bit too dark here.
Please caution me, readers.
Is it too much?
New Character Illustrations!!!
New novel 𝓬hapters are published on (f)reeweb(n)ovel.com