The Evolution of a Goblin to the Peak

"An artifact for disguising...?" Souta said as he looked at the artifact.

"Yes, you can alter your appearance to that of a human, but it will decrease your abilities to some extent," Alice explained the function of the artifact to him. The limit and the things that he could do with it.

"I see. Then, it will help a lot," Souta said as he wore the artifact and registered it in his system as "equip" so that he could see its effect.

Looking at the details of the artifact, it seems that Alice was right. He could alter his appearance with this, but it couldn't hide his real appearance from the eyes of a god-level powerhouse or a person with high perception.

He activated the effect of the bracelet, and his body emitted a dim white light. After a few moments, the light disappeared, revealing Souta's appearance.

Souta looked at Alice and asked, "How is it?"

"Nothing changes aside from your skin tone. You look like a real human." Alice answered him.

"Is that so...?" Souta said as he looked at his system and saw his current appearance. He was quite shocked by it. He looked exactly the same when he was still living on earth.

The only difference was that his hair was longer than "him" on earth, and he was shorter right now.

"Good. Let's go back now." Souta was quite satisfied with this artifact. He didn't think that Alice has this kind of artifact that is perfect for disguising.

"Okay." Alice nodded, and she glanced at the dead bodies in the surrounding area. "What about these corpses?"

"We'll burn them," Souta replied as he cast his [Fireball] spell on the corpses.

After burning the bodies, the two went back to the place where they left Yuko. They didn't forget to bring the corpse of the giant snake.

...

The two set up camp and roasted the snake's meat. They eat the meat along with Yuko. The meat tasted good even without condiments.

From the information that they've gathered, this forest was vast. The place they were in was a small part of the Great Tunbra Forest.

Surrounding this vast forest were three countries. This forest became the border of the three dominant countries, and because of this, war didn't occur between these countries.

It wasn't easy to cross this forest, as countless powerful monsters lived there, and the most ferocious one was a dragon. Dragons were at the top of the food chain in this world.

Everyone feared the overwhelming power of the dragons. Even the three dominant countries feared the existence of dragons; that's why they couldn't organize a large army to go through the forest.

The dragon of this world must be a third or fourth evolution. The power of the second evolution monster was already powerful for them. Plus, the giant snake before was only an ordinary second evolution. It wasn't a rare species in the Imperium at all. It wasn't even mutated, but the bandit leader said that it would take an army to defeat that snake.

It means that the power level of this world is too low. Hero-rank, SSS-rank, and fifth evolution couldn't be seen in this world. Souta wasn't even sure if there were people that reached SS-rank or S-rank.

Souta drew a large circle on the ground and said, "This is the Great Tunbra Forest, and we're here in this part." He then drew a small circle at the southwest part of the circle.

The three strongest countries were called the Condifan Empire, the Gyunar Republic, and the Linca Empire.

The Condifan Empire was a country of elves. It was also a haven for magicians in the world, as most of the top magicians were living in that country. This country was founded first among the three dominant countries a thousand years ago.

The Gyunar Republic was a country of humans. It was founded fifty years ago by extremely powerful humans. In just a few decades, a newly built country reached a height that others could only dream about.

Lastly, the Linca Empire. That last of the three dominant countries was a country that was always doing military exercises to strengthen its army. Magical research and technology are where their confidence is coming from.

Aside from these three, there are hundreds of other countries, but these three were the strongest. There was a kingdom alliance in the south of the Gyunar Republic. The kingdom alliance was an alliance of more than ten kingdoms to prevent the invasion of the three most powerful countries on the continent.

The closest country to them was the Gyunar Republic. So they will go there to gather more detailed information. There's no way the bandit leader could know everything in this world.

But before they could arrive in the Gyunar Republic, they had to go through a lot of things. They will pass through several villages before they arrive at the border of the empire. If they have horses, it will take them three weeks to travel, but if they walk, it will take them longer. But it was the opposite for Souta, Alice, and Yuko. Their speed was many times faster than a horse.

Yeah, it was a good choice to not use a horse, but Souta didn't want to walk at all. He wanted to enter Saya's inner consciousness while they were traveling, so if they were walking on their feet, Souta wouldn't be able to enter Saya's inner consciousness.

Souta glanced at Yuko and asked, "Do you want to come with us or not?"

"I want to follow master wherever he goes..." Yuko replied to him. Her childlike voice sounded in his head like a lullaby.

"Okay, I already have a plan to leave you here, but since you want to come along with me, I'll let you." Souta smiled, knowing that there were tamers in this world.

If he leaves Yuko here, he will ask her to dominate this part of the forest. Since there were dragons in this forest, she will stay in this part and conquer this part of the forest since there's no other third evolution here. Even if she met a dragon, Yuko would survive, even if the dragon was at the fourth level of evolution.

She was stronger than normal at third level, and she also had the blessing of the Destruction Queen, Raeshka.

Alice looked at the two of them back and forth. She could hear them as they were talking, but she couldn't understand them. It seems that Yuko became an intellectual monster after she evolved into her third level.

"What did you say?" Alice asked Souta.

"Well, I asked Yuko if she wanted to come with us, and she said that she'd follow us," Souta said as he shrugged his shoulders.

"Hmm... It's reassuring to have her with us. She's a third evolution monster, so it will take a party of five to ten B-ranks to subdue her. Also, she's pretty strong for someone who just evolved," Alice said while glancing at Yuko.

Souta couldn't deny it. Yuko was strong, and she had the blessing of Raeshka. If she used it, then she could somehow hold herself against a fourth evolution monster.

The third evolution was divided into four ranks. The early, intermediate, high, and peak rank; the early third evolution's level was between level 40 and 44. The intermediate level was between 45 and 49. The high level was between 50 and 54. Lastly, the peak level was between 55 and 59.

Yuko had just evolved, so she was level 40 and an early rank, but she had the power of an intermediate rank third evolution monster. A normal party of B-rank without sufficient skills couldn't hope to defeat her.

If she wore high-grade equipment, then B-rank couldn't hope to defeat her. A party of A-rank would need to defeat her.

Souta looked at the sky and said, "It's getting dark."

"Yeah, I could feel the presence of some monster nearby us," Alice said as she closed her eyes.

"Those monsters wouldn't dare to attack us. Their instinct would tell them that we were something they couldn't handle." Souta simply waved his hand as he stood up. He suddenly stopped moving as he felt something trying to connect in his transmission talisman.

He went to the corner and leaned his back on a tree before he took out the talisman in his pocket.

"Hello..." Souta said as he guessed who was calling him.

"Souta! Is that you, Souta?!"

He heard Lumilia's loud voice from the talisman. His guess was right. It was really Lumilia. Considering what happened to him, Yuko, and Alice, she must be worried about them.

"Yeah, I'm Souta. Alice is fine too," Souta replied to her as he took a glance at Alice, who was walking in the opposite direction.

"I'm glad... Yujin, Brando, and Lynn are here. They are listening to your voice," Lumilia sighed in relief after she confirmed that Souta, Yuko, and Alice were fine.

"Don't worry about us, but I don't think that we could return easily," Souta said to them.