I turned two years old.
The earliest age you could be considered full-grown and allowed to go out on hunts was four.
Four years old being considered mature might shock humans, but when you thought about how quickly goblins grew, it was plenty of time.
In fact, for goblins whose lifespans barely reached ten years, it might even be considered on the slow side.
A goblin's lifespan in this world was ten years.
Converted to Earth years, that was roughly eleven years.
Even with good fortune, you might live to about thirteen.
That was the grace period granted to goblins.
Before that lifespan ran out, you had to evolve.
For a goblin to evolve, its Level had to reach ten.
And even then, that didn't necessarily mean you could evolve into a Hobgoblin.
When a goblin hit Level ten, it could evolve into one of three types: Goblin Fighter, Ranger, or Shaman.
Which one you evolved into was a choice.
But depending on your Status at the time, the evolution path could be locked in.
Fighters excelled at close combat and were the most straightforward and faithful to the basics.
Rangers had high speed, nimble fingers, and were suited to support roles.
Shamans were strong in magic and could wield spells.
The most popular choice was the Fighter.
Rather than Shamans being unpopular, the real issue was that most goblins simply didn't have the aptitude, so their numbers were small.
As for Rangers, they were genuinely unpopular.
It was said that goblins who couldn't endure hunts and planned to take on village administrative work in the future were the ones who chose that path.
In truth, I didn't think Rangers were inferior to Fighters or Shamans in any way.
But compared to the other two types, which were easy to understand at a glance, the Ranger path was inevitably more niche and specialized, which was why it never gained traction.
After going through one of these three evolution paths and reaching Level ten once more, you could finally evolve into a Hobgoblin.
Once you became a Hobgoblin, you no longer had to worry about your lifespan.
You could supposedly live about as long as a human.
That said, even among Hobgoblins, quite a few met their end before old age in this harsh environment.
Evolving didn't mean the battle for survival was over.
There were plenty of goblins my age.
Even though we were children, the village couldn't afford to just let goblins run around playing. Once you were old enough to work, you started helping out with the household.
In my case, that meant farm work.
Even in this village nestled in a mountain range with weak sunlight, there were plants that could grow.
We cultivated hardy vegetables with strong vitality.
This was surprisingly heavy labor, and it was tough on a child's body.
First, you had to manage the soil to keep it from freezing.
If you left it alone, the ground would freeze over almost immediately, so you had to warm it up regularly.
You'd heat up a specialized farming tool with fire, then carefully till the soil bit by bit so as not to damage the crops' roots.
It required both strength and delicate precision, which was mentally exhausting too.
There was also harvesting, sowing seeds, and the regular tilling work.
The crops we were growing were a type of Monster, and if you misjudged the harvest window, they might end up eating you instead, so you had to check them thoroughly.
It was quite the grueling job.
Thanks to it, my arm strength improved and I picked up a few Skills along the way.
But that farm work came to an abrupt end one day.
The catalyst was when meat from a hunt made it to the dinner table.
The meat was so tough that I found myself wishing, deep down, for a knife.
A flash of light burst inside our cramped little home, and the next instant, a knife was gripped in my hand.
It was far cruder than the knife I had imagined, but it was undeniably a knife.
While I stood there stunned, Dad took the knife from my hand.
Then he walked out of the house.
When he returned some time later, he had brought the village chief with him.
The village chief was, true to the title, the longest-living resident of the village.
He was one of the few goblins who had reached an age that could be called elderly.
The chief handed me something.
It was an Appraisal Stone.
The only one in the village—a magical tool imbued with the power of the Appraisal Skill.
By using this Appraisal Stone, you could gain a clear picture of the Skills you possessed.
I did as I was told and used the Appraisal Stone to check my Status.
『Goblin LV1 Name: Razlaz Status HP: 69/69 (Green) MP: 4/35 (Blue) SP: 66/66 (Yellow) : 51/66 (Red) Average Attack: 68 Average Defense: 66 Average Magic: 33 Average Resistance: 31 Average Speed: 65 Skills "Magic Power Perception LV2" "Magic Power Operation LV1" "SP Recovery Speed LV3" "SP Consumption Reduction LV6" "Focus LV3" "Prayer LV8" "Strike Resistance LV2" "Wind Resistance LV1" "Ice Resistance LV6" "Vision Enhancement LV7" "Hearing Enhancement LV6" "Smell Enhancement LV4" "Taste Enhancement LV2" "Touch Enhancement LV3" "Life LV9" "Magic Power LV4" "Burst LV7" "Endurance LV7" "Strength LV9" "Durability LV8" "Spellcaster LV3" "Guardian LV2" "Dash LV7" "Weapon Forging LV1" "n％I＝W"』
The Skill I recognized was Weapon Forging.
When I reported it to the chief, he told me to use Appraisal to look into what that Skill did.
『Weapon Forging: Consumes MP to create weapons. The quality of the created weapon depends on the Skill level and the amount of MP consumed.』
This was definitely the Skill.
That knife from earlier had been created by the power of this Skill.
From that point on, I was put in charge of crafting weapons using this Skill.
In a goblin village, you could only make simple weapons and armor.
There were neither proper facilities nor materials.
In the beginning, all I could produce were things that were barely usable.
My MP was low, and the Skill level was low as well.
But as I kept using it, the Skill level gradually rose, my MP pool grew, and I eventually acquired a Skill called SP Recovery Speed.
There were limits to the weapons I could create with Weapon Forging.
First, I had to be able to recognize something as a weapon in order to forge it.
Bladed weapons were almost all forgeable, but blunt weapons sometimes couldn't be created.
Armor couldn't be forged.
Shields, for some reason, seemed to be an exception and could be forged.
Mechanical devices couldn't be forged.
Guns and the like couldn't be forged either.
In other words, all I could forge were primitive swords, spears, and the like.
Even so, in a goblin village that had no decent weapons to speak of, they were invaluable. So I kept forging weapons for as long as my MP held out.