My (Monster?) Hero Life

Kace took awhile to gain his composure again. He watched on with amusement as he gathered up some food for himself and taking a seat. It seemed as though his antics had turned into some kind of game. Though he could not understand the actual rules, if any even existed. Every so often one of them would manage to get a bite followed by a chorus of cheers.

Metal jingled against each other as Gyn entered the area. Spotting Kace he quickly made his way over and took a seat beside him.

"It'll take them a bit of time to sort out your squad sir. I hope you don't mind but apart from our previous discussion about the oil I took the opportunity to make another suggestion."

"Oh? And what would that be Gyn?"

"Well it occurred to me. Although we have greater numbers the Orcs are far stronger right?"

"Well, yeah I guess."

"So all we have to do is kill a few of their commanders before the battle!" Gyn replied while beaming.

Kace almost choked on the food he was munching on. Banging on his chest to dislodge it, he stared at Gyn in horror.

"Please don't tell me!"

"Yeah, I volunteered our squad for it!" Gyn grinned. "We'll need to move soon. Kings orders and all you know."

"And how are we meant to do this when we don't actually have a squad yet?"

"Huh, never thought of that. Won't us two be enough?"

"Definitely not!"

"Well, maybe the King will have it sorted before we leave." Gyn smiled as he said this.

Kace began to rub his temples, his head felt like it was about to explode. With a heavy sigh he looked Gyn straight in the eyes.

"At least tell me you have some useful toys for this?"

"Thought you'd never ask!" Gyn replied as he swiftly got up and rushed off.

Kace was quick to catch on and followed after him. They headed through a few of the new tunnels, goblins could be heard talking in some of the rooms that cut off from them. Kace guessed this was the area that the Scavvie Tribe had been allocated to.

Some goblins stuck their heads out of their holes in curiosity, most were just engrossed in whatever they were working on. Kace had expected to be lead to a storeroom or a workshop. Instead it looked like they all worked on their own things, unwilling to share their ideas unless absolutely necessary.

Gyn lead him into one of these rooms. Looking around curiously he spotted a bed that was cluttered with objects. The floor could barely be seen for all the parts and half finished gadgets laying around. It was completely unorganised.

Gyn rushed around the room gathering several things in his arms before rushing back to Kace.

"Sit! Sit!" he said excitedly.

Kace was at a loss as to where exactly he was meant to sit. Noticing his confusion Gyn used a foot to kick some things off the bed. Taking the hint he perched himself on the edge. Worried that something may lodge itself in his ass if he was not careful.

"Look at this..." Gyn said as he passed a metallic ball to Kace. "You see the this lever here on the side. Well if you flick that and throw it these side parts open up fast enough to throw out small sharp pieces of metal! Just imagine the pain it would cause!"

Kace grimaced at the face Gyn was making as he said this. Looking over the object in his hand curiously he could see the grooves where the parts opened up. 'So it's a type of disposable bomb then? I guess that could be handy.'

"How many of these do you currently have?" Kace asked.

"Hmm, maybe about five? I think? I just need to look for them. Ah anyway this next one." He handed over another object. "This here I found laying around on the site of a battle between humans!"

The item in question was actually a flintlock pistol. 'Oh now this is actually a really good find!' Kace thought getting excited.

"The only problem is I have no idea what it does or how to make it work but just looking at it I can tell it holds a great secret. Possibly some kind of magic!"

Kace immediately felt deflated. It was just a piece of junk. From what he knew from his previous life they would need gunpowder and ammo.

Seeing that Kace was losing interest Gyn pushed on with his reasoning.

"You see this here on the handle?" he said while pointing out a green coloured stone embedded on it to Kace. "This here is a mana stone! The green colour is for the air element. So if you have mana I suspect that pouring it into the stone would create a projectile of air magic that would fire when you pull this lever!"

"You suspect? Have you not tested it?" Kace said, his enthusiasm returning.

"Well I can't do that can I? I don't have any mana haha." Gyn said sheepishly trying to laugh it off.

Kace gathered his mana in his hand holding the gun. The stone that was embedded there began to give off a soft green glow as Kace felt the mana disappearing.

[Dynus Model: Airgun Type: Pistol. Fully charged. Number of Shots left: 1]

[-5 MP]

Kace was surprised at the amount of MP it took from him. Luckily with his recent rank upgrade he had some to spare. He found it unfortunate that it only stored a single shot but it could be handy in an emergency. Gyn looked on at the process marvelling at it.

"Oh! You can use mana? Can we test it! Luke right now!" Gyn fired off energetically.

"Probably best not to. It'd be a waste of the mana I just expended to charge it and I doubt I could afford to charge it again before the battle."

Upon hearing this Gyn put on a face as if all of his hopes and dreams had just been crushed, like an ant under a very large boot. Kace could only shake his head at this. He simply was not willing to waste any of his new resources.

The rest of the items were mostly junk. Except for one that acted as a miniature piece of equipment for telling the time in this world. So basically a watch. Except it was split into fourteen different sections on the bottom half with the symbol of a sun and had twelve on the upper half with a moon symbol.

This gave Kace the idea that the cycle of day and night were most likely set all year round. Not changing with the seasons, if there were any in the first place. Probably.

It took some time for Gyn to find the rest of the bombs that had been scattered around which raised alot of concerns for Kace. I mean what if he had accidentally set them off?

After leaving Gyn's room the paid a visit back to the forge to collect his new armour. Duren had been rather happy by his new pieces that he had created. The bracers were smooth and slightly angled rather than rounded to make deflecting easier. Originally he had wanted to add some kind of spikes to them to catch the enemies blades but gave up on the idea after remembering that Kace wore a coat. That would just interfere with it. So instead he opted to attach them to the shinguards. Explaining that if he blocked a weapon with them then he could essentially pull his opponent off balance while still being able to strike freely with his hands.

Duren had even paid special attention to them by having them coloured black to match the coat. Assuming that Kace preferably worked in the shadows. Sure his stats and current build so far definitely suggested that but inside his heart was crying. He had wanted to be a Hero that stood out in broad daylight god damn it! Not some super assassin in the making!

With Duren's help he attached the new pieces to his ensemble. He took some time to admire the craftsmanship that had went into them, crude as it may be. He wholeheartedly gave his thanks as Gyn and himself took their leave.

As they made their way through the tunnels Kace began attaching the bombs and the Airgun to the empty slots inside his coat from the missing daggers. He had totally forgotten about them! It was too late to turn back now but he swore he would see if he could get replacements when they returned. Luckily he still had a few left but there was no guarantee they would be enough.

Stepping out into the moonlight the hustle and bustle of the goblins inside the walls was still carrying on. Before him stood three rows of three goblins wearing dark, black dyed leather gear with hoods. A solitary goblin stood in front of them and bowed to him.

"Ready to move out commander." Durz declared confidently.