Goblin Slayer (1)

'Now, should I wait till she recovers, or just go kill all the goblins myself?' thought Gray as he stared at Tesse.

'No, I shouldn't be too hasty. If I just wait for her to recover then my combat abilities will rise exponentially,'

"How long does it usually take for you to recover from the effects of your ability?"

"F-four hours,"

'Four hours? Maybe I can analyze that sword I saw earlier and think of a strategy to kill all the goblins here' thought Gray as he walked to the fire at the center of the encampment and grabbed one of the pieces of wood.

"L-leaving?" asked Tesse, trying her best to stand up.

"Sigh, I don't think you quite understand our arrangement. You don't get to ask me questions like that, I do what I want and you follow. I hope you didn't think we would work as partners, think of it as you being one of my weapons, a tool if you will,"

"And just so you know, I like my tools quiet. Now stop trying to get up and rest, you'll need it for the fun we're going to have later," said Gray as he walked towards the dark tunnel using the burning piece of wood as a torch.

'O-okay' thought Tesse as her mind went blank and she finally allowed herself to pass out.

Gray made his way towards the place where he had hidden the glowing sword, making sure to keep a mental note of where all the goblin corpses were in case he had to make blood weapons later on.

"What are these markings?" whispered Gray as he examined the glowing sword lying on the floor. It had a bright blue color and strange markings along its blade. Apart from that, it had the same structure as a traditional long sword, which would make it rather hard to swing in a tunnel.

'I mean, there's no way I can use this in here, but what if the blade has special properties attached to it because of these markings. Logically speaking, there's no way a normal sword would glow like this,' thought Gray as he continued examining the markings.

After several minutes Gray was finally confident enough to create a replica of the sword in front of him, along with the strange markings it had on its blade.

[Warning, the blood price for the creation of this weapon exceeds the maximum amount which the user can pay. A larger amount of blood is needed to fully create this weapon. Would you like to create a replica without the Arcanian runes?] asked the voice in Gray's head.

'Arcanian runes huh? It must be referring to those markings, anyway if my blood isn't enough, what about the corpses of those goblins I killed earlier?' thought Gray as he made his way back to collect the goblin corpses.

After walking around the tunnel for several minutes and collecting the goblin corpses, Gray piled them into a heap and tried creating the replica again.

[The blood price is sufficient. Keep in mind that a larger activation blood price will be taken from the user. The created weapon will only retain a few of its previous abilities as the quality of blood used is low. Confirm whether you wish to create 'Mighty Sword blood replica'.]

"Yes," replied Gray.

[Creation confirmed.] as the voice said this, all the goblin corpses were sucked dry turning them into shriveled-up skin bags, the blood then collected in front of Gray and began to take the form of a sword.

'This hasn't happened before,'

As the blood tried forming the Arcanian rune engravings the tunnel began shaking, and a bright red light illuminated from the floating blood sword.

As Gray stared into the red light, two gleaming eyes seemed to stare back at him, however, they were gone in a flash.

[Insufficient qualifications to use Mighty Sword. A blood price will be offered each time it is used in order to compensate for missing qualifications.]

[The blood used in the creation of Mighty Sword is of a lower species and as such certain abilities will be restricted. Use of higher quality blood will improve the weapon. Confirm contract with Might Sword Blood replica,]

This time the voice wasn't coming from Gray's head, but instead from within the blood sword.

'What the hell? It's no use backing out now, I already sacrificed too much blood,' thought Gray as he realized that he was felling a bit nauseous.

With every blood weapon he created, a blood price was paid as well as a small amount used for activation. Although the main blood price could be supplemented by the enemies he had slain, he still had to pay the activation price himself, but usually it was negligible.

However, now Gray felt like he had created several blood weapons using his own blood, he was already feeling anemic.

"I accept the contract. This better had been worth it,"

As Gray said this a shockwave reverberated through the air, knocking Gray to the floor.

The engraved sword then turned back to blood and floated towards Gray, forming a mark on Gray's right hand. He felt a searing pain almost as if he were being burnt as the mark was engraved onto his skin.

[New skill 'Mighty Sword Blood replica contractor'.]

[The original Mighty Sword was owned by the king of Arcania and was one of the ten swords of the end, used to seal a demon. Although merely a replica, it can exert a good fraction of its original power based on the quality of blood used. Though it may be a replica, the essence of the demon sealed within the original resides in this blade.] said the voice in Gray's head giving him a description of the weapon.

"Couldn't you have given me a rundown of the abilities it possesses?" asked Gray as he tried summoning the blade.

A red light shone from his right hand, and blood ebbed from the marking completely covering it in blood. The blood sword then took shape in Gray's right hand, giving off a faint red glow.