Ch.12Stat Farming? (1)

After leaving the training room, I packed up all the necessary items and headed straight to the guild.

The reason was simple: to accept a request.

“Goblin village destruction, request deadline is one week from now.”

The request I received was nothing special.

It was something I could handle without much effort at my current level.

If I needed money or experience points, I wouldn’t have even glanced at such a request.

Nevertheless, I chose this request because it met the conditions I currently required.

Whether she knew my thoughts or not, Elena, who had been silently handling her work, briefly looked up at me.

“What’s with the backpack you’re carrying?”

More precisely, she was looking at the backpack I was carrying.

Apparently, since the backpack was quite large, it seemed strange to be so heavily prepared for such a simple request.

“Ah, I’m planning to wander around a bit this time. So I packed some extra supplies. Please don’t worry too much even if I’m a bit late.”

I gave her a reasonable excuse and dispelled her suspicions.

While doing so, I also left her a hint that I might be late, just in case.

After leaving the guild and walking for a bit, I soon came across the city gate where various people were lined up.

At the gate, they were still searching for Apostles, maintaining strict security and conducting thorough inspections.

I was also subject to inspection, but I was able to exit without much trouble by presenting my adventurer’s badge and the request form stamped by the guild.

Once outside the city, I checked the location indicated on the request form again.

It was about 5 hours away on foot.

Not too far, not too close—just the right distance.

“There’s still plenty of time.”

The request deadline was 7 days.

Even if I spent 1 day on travel and clearing the village, I’d still have 6 days left.

My plan required about 5 days, so I had at least 1 day of buffer time.

Thanks to this, I headed toward my destination through the forest without any rush, and easily found the goblin village.

And from discovery, it took just 30 minutes.

I completely destroyed the goblin village in less than 30 minutes without any difficulty.

Except for one goblin that I left alive.

“Not even good enough for a warm-up punching bag…”

Ordinary goblins were sliced through with a single sword strike, not just one but several at once, making it insufficient to properly test my swordsmanship or cultivation technique.

And since there weren’t any special higher-ranked individuals either, it was almost a miracle that it even took 30 minutes.

“Well, that’s done.”

Since my purpose for coming here wasn’t to test my limits, I didn’t feel much disappointment.

Instead, remembering my actual purpose, I summoned Lilly to prepare for what came next.

“I thought you were still training diligently, but suddenly you’re destroying a goblin village? Isn’t this too easy for you?”

She seemed quite surprised that I was out here destroying a goblin village when she thought I’d still be in the training room.

I briefly explained the situation to her, partly to calm her down.

“I’ve finished the first phase of training, so I came out. I’ve mastered all the basics.”

“I wasn’t going to say anything about your training since I’m sure you’re doing well. What I’m curious about is why you suddenly summoned me to a goblin village. And what’s with that huge backpack?”

Apparently, this large backpack was definitely catching her attention.

Since there was no need to hide anything from Lilly, I opened the backpack and laid it down so she could easily see its contents.

“Obviously, I called you because I need your help. And these are all healing potions.”

With the backpack lying open on the ground, potions began rolling out one after another.

After spitting out potions for quite some time, the backpack finally emptied itself, creating a small mountain of potions.

“How many are there…”

“I spent all my remaining fortune to buy as many potions as possible.”

I bought as many as I could and received plenty of service discounts, so while I wasn’t certain, I thought there must be at least 70 potions.

Lilly picked up one of the many potions and gave me an incredulous look.

“What on earth are you planning to do with all these potions?”

“What do you think I need most right now?”

“I don’t know why you’re suddenly asking, but it’s obviously your basic stats, right? You’re a Succubus, so your physical abilities are quite lacking.”

Despite my abrupt and strange question, Lilly gave a simple answer. I nodded, indicating that I agreed with her opinion.

Right now, the differences between my stats might be small and manageable with swordsmanship and special abilities, but as time passed, those differences would become more and more apparent.

No matter how excellent one’s skills might be, they would be useless without the physical body to support them.

“So, I plan to raise those lacking basic stats to average, no, above average levels.”

“If that was your plan, shouldn’t you have bought elixirs instead of healing potions?”

“Elixirs are just temporary measures. They might seem to balance things out for now, but the gap widens again as time passes.”

If I were to simply take elixirs to enhance my physical stats, I’d have to drink them like water all the way to the late game.

‘They’re hard to obtain, and even if I could, I’d go bankrupt from the cost of elixirs.’

Besides, there was no guarantee that my opponents wouldn’t be taking elixirs either.

So what I needed was a means to permanently and continuously increase my stats.

“And you know that means, don’t you?”

When I nodded, Lilly looked at me as if she needed a more detailed explanation.

“You know that Apostles have characteristics and skills, right?”

“Of course I know. Characteristics are what you get when you start, and skills are what you gain through experience. Right?”

“Characteristics aren’t just initial ones; you can also gain them by achieving certain feats. What I’m aiming for now is one of those feats.”

“Sigh, alright. What do you need me to help with?”

“First, please set up a wind barrier. There’s going to be a lot of blood smell.”

At my words, Lilly made a gesture, and a curtain of wind formed around the area.

The wind barrier wasn’t particularly durable, but it was useful in many ways, such as hiding our appearance or blocking noise and smells.

After confirming that the wind curtain was properly set up, Lilly flew back to me.

“And next?”

“Just a moment, please.”

With that, I secured the goblin I had left alive earlier in a suitable spot.

The goblin kept struggling, but the difference in strength was clear. Eventually, the exhausted goblin went limp as if begging to be killed, but unfortunately, I had no intention of killing it.

Squelch.

I thrust a dagger into the goblin’s shoulder.

“From now on, if this creature seems like it’s about to die, please use potions on it periodically.”

While being stabbed in the shoulder was unlikely to be fatal, excessive bleeding was always a possibility, so I asked Lilly to monitor its condition.

“And… ah, do you know about Odin?”

“No, I don’t. Should I?”

“Not necessarily. He’s just a god from our world’s mythology.”

When I said that, Lilly seemed unable to grasp the intent behind my words.

That was understandable since I hadn’t gotten to the main point yet.

“But there’s one memorable story about this god. He hung himself upside down on the World Tree and stabbed himself with a spear, enduring for 99 days to gain new knowledge.”

By this point, she seemed to have realized something was off, as she looked at me with a slightly tense expression.

“Why are you suddenly telling me this…?”

“It just came to mind because what I’m about to do is similar.”

Hearing this, Lilly looked at me with an expression that seemed to say “you can’t be serious.”

“Um… you’re going to do this to the goblin, right?”

“No, I have to do it to myself.”

A brief answer.

Followed by a moment of deep breathing.

Then I thrust my sword deep into my own chest.

“Kuh…”

Simultaneously, an explosion of pain.

Starting from where the sword was embedded, the pain turned my mind completely blank. The terrible agony made normal thinking impossible.

“Cough!! Cough!!”

All I could do was crawl on the ground and roll around.

During combat, no matter how many wounds I received, I could stay focused on the battle, but in this situation, I was completely consumed by pain, feeling like I might go insane.

As I writhed in agony, I could see Lilly in the distance, approaching with a potion.

“Hey!! Are you crazy?! Pull it out right now! We have plenty of potions…”

“No… I can’t…”

I could stop now and start again anytime.

But if I stopped now, I didn’t have the confidence to start again.

So I desperately blocked her hand as she tried to pull out the sword and feed me a potion.