Thanks to my weapon forging, the Goblin Village had developed ever so slightly.
Since I could forge anything with a blade, everyday goods like kitchen knives and scissors became readily available.
On top of that, the weapons themselves were upgraded from the shabby ones they'd been using before — old hand-me-downs from dead adventurers, or things made from monster bones — to proper weapons. Because of that, the survival rate of goblins heading out on hunts improved, if only a little.
Half a year had passed since I first became aware of my weapon forging Skill.
Day after day, I kept forging weapons.
Thanks to that, my MP — which had originally bottomed out after forging even a simple knife — had grown considerably, and now I could forge weapons of quite decent quality.
I used Appraisal on the completed sword.
『Forged Sword: Attack Power 96, Durability 1099 — A sword created through forging』
I'd borrowed the Appraisal Stone from the village chief so I could check the stats of the weapons I forged.
Using it to appraise the blade, I could say this sword had rather impressive specs.
Attack Power was added directly to your Status as attack power.
Durability represented the weapon's structural integrity — when this value dropped low, the weapon would break easily.
Think of it like a defense value for the weapon. If I had to guess, being hit by an attack with power exceeding that number would destroy it in a single blow.
Thinking about it that way, this sword wouldn't break in one hit from anything under 1099 attack power.
You'd have to call that pretty sturdy, right?
And the attack power was a whopping 96.
My current attack power was 81, so just equipping this sword would more than double it.
Should I lament that my own attack power was lower than the sword's, or should I just be happy that I'd made a weapon with such good stats?
It was a bit of a toss-up.
Over the past half year, I'd been doing nothing but weapon forging and hadn't really had the chance to raise my attack power, so maybe it was only natural.
A lot had happened in those six months.
Older brother goblins who went out hunting never came back.
And then, just when you thought things couldn't get more unpredictable, my actual older brother happily evolved into a Hobgoblin.
My family consisted of four older brothers, six older sisters, two parents, one younger brother, and one younger sister — fifteen of us in total, myself included.
For humans that would be a big family, but for goblins it wasn't all that remarkable.
Pregnancy periods were short and reproductive rates were high, so they could pop out kids in quick succession.
On the other hand, the death rate was equally high.
From what I'd heard, there were supposed to be four more siblings above me, and one younger brother had been lost to miscarriage.
That had been rough.
He was supposed to be my first little brother.
But it didn't work out.
The whole family cried together.
I lost my appetite for a while after that.
The one who comforted me through that was my eldest brother, Lazalaza.
Whether "comforted" was the right word for it was debatable, though.
What he did was punch me.
"Stop moping around with that long face. Eat up and live strong. That's the duty of anyone who's alive."
With that, he forced food into my mouth.
He literally pried my jaws open and shoved food in whether I wanted it or not.
After that, whenever I looked down during mealtime, he'd force-feed me without discussion.
I thought I was going to die, but gradually I stopped feeling so down.
Lazalaza's words made sense, and more importantly, our mother was already carrying a new life by then.
Goblins had incredible life force.
And so my little sister was born.
That was when I swore I would protect her.
Lazalaza was one of the village's top warriors.
He was a Hobgoblin who'd evolved further into a High Goblin, and his Status was incomparably higher than a regular goblin's.
I was proud of my brother.
All the male siblings looked up to Lazalaza as their goal.
But thanks to my weapon forging, I'd ended up in a rather unique position.
I was still too young to go out on hunts, yet I was becoming an indispensable presence in the village.
Hunting was dangerous.
But if you didn't hunt, you couldn't raise your Level, couldn't Evolve, and would simply die of old age.
They couldn't afford to lose me, but they also had to send me out to hunt.
So apparently, the higher-ups were arguing about what to do.
Well, going on hunts was still a ways off, and by then they'd probably have worked out some rough plan.
I imagined they'd have the village's finest warriors escort me.
If possible, I'd want Lazalaza on duty for that.
If possible.
I gave my completed forged sword a name.
"Naming — Severed Claw."
The named forged sword glowed for an instant.
I appraised it one more time.
『Severed Claw: Attack Power 116, Durability 1199 — A sword created through forging and given a name』
Attack Power had gone up by 20, Durability by 100.
This was the effect of the Skill "Naming."
Every time I finished a weapon, I'd give it a name, and that was how I'd acquired this Skill.
Its effect was to raise the Status of whatever was named.
Right now it was at Skill Level 2.
Thanks to this Skill, weapons I named became even more effective.
Actually, this Skill wasn't limited to weapons.
Even living creatures would see their Status rise if I gave them a name.
Even things that already had names could receive the boost by overwriting their existing name.
But in this goblin village, there wasn't a single goblin who wanted me to give them a name.
For goblins, a name held sacred meaning.
No matter how much they knew their Status would increase, not a single goblin was willing to change a name that had already been given.
I respected that pride.
************************ "Captaaain! We took down one Goblin!"
"Good work. Any casualties on our end?"
"Zerooo! Well, it was a little dicey for a sec there. The thing had some seriously nice gear lately."
"A Goblin that can forge?"
"No way, right? It's a Goblin we're talking about. But hey, if there was one like that, Captain, you could totally use your Skill to make it your minion, yeah? That'd spruce up our equipment — we're stuck in the middle of nowhere over here."
"Indeed. Still, we can't ignore the fact that the Goblins' range of activity is expanding. We need to come up with a countermeasure quickly."
"Yessir, yessir~"