Episode 20
The group of goblins that had been raiding for the past two days was around 20 each time.
However, the movements they felt now were twice as much as his.
I carefully got up.
The current night shift is Kate and Roy.
Roy is the guy who’s been around Kate since she left for Won-ha.
Unaware of the enemy’s approach, the two clung to each other and were engrossed in conversation.
I didn’t want to interfere between the two for the prosperity of mankind, but as the situation was the situation, I quietly called them.
“Kate. Roy.”
The two flinched as if startled by the sudden call.
I lifted one of my fingers and put it to my lips, gesturing for silence.
“A group of goblins are on their way. Wake up the others.”
At my words, Kate and Roy made puzzled faces.
However, seeing my serious expression, I started to wake the party as quietly as possible.
I lightly shook Talia who was sleeping next to me.
“Talia, wake up. Goblin.”
At the word goblin, Talia widened her sleepy eyes and quickly got up and gathered her equipment.
In the meantime, Kate and Roy woke everyone else up.
“Everyone aligns ranks.”
Wilmot set up his formation before he could figure out if the goblins were really coming.
Experienced in many battles, a glimpse was seen.
At Wilmot’s direction, four men lined up on either side of him.
To their left, Thalia and I took our seats in a semicircle.
There was no special formation for us, not an army or mercenary group, but a temporary expedition.
Due to the nature of the Demon Beasts, who rush at people without looking back, there is no need for a strategy, so it was rather effective in battle to match the sum of people who have been together for a long time.
As the party formed, Wilmot asked me quietly.
“Hey, little fellow. I can’t hear anything, but are you sure there are goblins? I should have told you to stay quiet. If you’ve done nothing wrong.”
“Shh.”
I cut off Wilmot’s words and listened to the sounds around me.
sniff sniff.
The goblin’s snort, chasing the smell, came from even closer.
“Come. Prepare everyone.”
I picked up a fist-sized stone from the floor.
After a while, I threw a stone at a bush about 10 meters away.
Whack- Puck!
As soon as the stone penetrated the bush, there was a sound like a watermelon bursting.
Ayeek!
Gold! Gold! Gold!
At the same time, dozens of goblins hiding in the bushes came out sporadically, shouting death in an incoherent voice.
“It’s a poison needle! Everyone raise your shields!”
All the goblins were carrying long barrels.
Those who were shouting ugly screams started firing poison darts with blowguns in their mouths.
Push shot!
If you get hit by a goblin’s stinger, you will experience extreme pain and paralysis of the affected area.
If you use mana, you can reduce the degree of pain and paralysis, but you can’t avoid slowing down your movements.
Fortunately, with Wilmot’s quick response, the expedition was able to safely defend against the stinger.
The goblins threw down their empty blowguns and charged in disorderly with crude weapons.
I stepped back away from the fighting party.
A mercenary of the same rank could easily deal with five or six goblins alone.
As expected, the party repulsed the goblins with overwhelming force.
‘Anyway, this is enough without me. The problem is they’re still hiding in the bushes.’
Goblins live in groups of tens to hundreds.
They have a habit of running away immediately if the situation is unfavorable, then pursuing them using their excellent sense of smell and then attacking them by surprise.
‘If I miss even one, the night will be even more tiring.’
A situation where it is clear that if someone escapes, they will bring more groups to attack.
In order to spend a comfortable night, he had to hunt without missing a single one.
‘The remaining ones are 12 in total.’
My senses could still hear the breathing of the goblins crouching in the bushes.
They gasped like dogs in heat, probably intoxicated by the excitement of battle.
As his breathing grew louder, he was able to grasp the number of people he hadn’t been able to distinguish before.
‘What should I do?’
For a while, I thought about whether or not to block the retreat of the hidden goblins.
But the trouble didn’t last long.
With 12 goblins, this is a number enough for an introductory samurai to deal with.
It was judged to be at a level where he could appear moderately capable while hiding his true skills.
As soon as I made up my mind, I took action to target the enemy’s rear.
“There are still goblins left in the bushes!”
After notifying the party of the goblin’s existence, he quickly fled and hid himself in a dark forest where the light of the bonfire could not reach.
What matters now is speed.
I mobilized all my mana and approached behind the goblins in a big circle.
From noble mtl dot com
After a while, as I approached while holding my breath, I saw a hobgoblin that looked one head taller than a normal goblin and 11 goblins lined up in front of him.
Hobgoblin didn’t think of leaving, hiding in the bushes even though the advance party was being slaughtered mercilessly.
‘Wait a little longer.’
Rather than immediately attacking the goblins, I waited for the party’s battle to end.
But then.
Krrr. sniff sniff.
The Hobgoblin sniffed and looked back.
Like a guy with a sensitive sense of smell, he seemed to be able to smell my body.
At that moment, without hesitation, I stormed into the Hobgoblin.
He kicked the ground with his mana-enhanced right leg.
bang! Kwaaang – Kwaaang…
As a weight of more than 200 kg was carried and pressed down on the ground, the sound of a huge foot cloud spread and echoed through the forest.
Reaching the hobgoblin’s distance in an instant, I quickly swung my mace from right to left.
Whoo!
At the same time as the heavy mace cut through the air.
damn!
The Hobgoblin’s left shoulder and pit were crushed like mud, revealing a half-torn heart.
‘eleven.’
Time! Time!
After Hobgoblin’s death, the remaining goblins shouted for their leader and rushed at them.
Like those who are faithful to their instincts, they must have lost their reason at the sudden attack and chose to attack instead of fleeing.
With both legs firmly planted, he twisted his waist and swung his mace for a long time.
Whoa! Kwak Kwa Kwak!
Three goblins’ heads exploded side by side at the mace’s attack in a large semicircle.
White pieces of bone and red flesh flew into the sky and scattered along the sideways traversing mace.
‘eight.’
He struck the shield diagonally, splitting the goblin from the left into two pieces.
As he swung his mace from side to side twice in succession, the bodies of three goblins were torn apart.
The blood and flesh smeared on the steel pieces flew in the air and danced dizzy.
‘four.’
After straightening my posture, I charged at the two goblins preparing to shoot poison needles in front of me.
bang!
A goblin was pushed by the heavy shield and flew into the sky.
Dark red blood gushed out of his mouth, as if his insides had become porridge.
Ting!
In the meantime, the poisonous needle that flew hit the armor and bounced off.
He raised his mace and slammed it down on the remaining goblins’ heads.
Kwajijik!
The mace’s rough hand mercilessly cut through the goblin’s frail body in half.
‘two.’
Enjoy! Dom Ang! Dom Ang!
The two goblins, who had watched their comrades brutally murdered, tried to escape as if they had finally come to their senses.
I showed my back first and threw my shield at the running goblin.
Wheein! sh*t.
The shield that split the goblin’s body from top to bottom continued to fly and became lodged in a thick tree.
‘one.’
I turned my head to catch the goblin who had escaped to the other side.
But at that moment.
jump!
Wilmot appeared before he knew it and struck with his large two-handed greatsword, splitting the goblin’s head vertically.
“her.”
Wilmot sighed in vain, looked around at the horrors I had caused, and was silent for a while.
After a while, the other party appeared one by one with improvised torches.
“Hmmm! What is this all about? Did you do this all by yourself?”
Nick drew the group’s attention with a strange exclamation.
“Oh my God!”
“How can it be. I can see more than ten? There are also hobgoblins.”
Alana and Kate looked at the goblins scattered on the floor and said.
“That friend, wearing heavy armor, has been unusual since training. At this level, he can deal with three orcs at once.”
“I thought it was a fistful because he said he was a beginner of Dongpae…”
“Seeing this gave me confidence. I’m confident that I’ll lose if I fight.”
Roy exchanged unkind words with two other men.
Whether the party was surprised or not, I focused my senses to confirm the goblin’s presence.
‘Is it the end?’
There were no more suspicious signs.
Thinking that the battle was over, I swung the mace toward the floor.
Then, the debris caught between the iron pieces fell to the floor.
“Have you dealt with all the others?”
At my question, Wilmot nodded briefly.
He had a look on his face that wanted to say something, but his mouth was tightly closed.
I walked to the tree and pulled out the shield.
Then Wilmot opened his mouth.
“I’m sure you know your skills. But as I said before, the most important thing in traveling is cooperation with colleagues. I’d like to exclude them from the expedition, but I’m going to go over this one time since I’ve been credited with finding the goblins first, and I haven’t missed them.
But keep in mind that there is no second time. If this happens again, your actions will spread among the mercenaries, so it will be difficult to organize another expedition in the future.”
“Okay. I think it’s because my opponent is a goblin. If I didn’t hit him from the back, he would have run away. This won’t happen in the future.”
“Trust me.”
Wilmot turned and walked back to the camp.
I shrugged my shoulders and brushed off the debris from my equipment.
In the meantime, Thalia came over and started talking.
“Mr. Ian, how did all this happen?
“Ah, Ms. Talia. Looking earlier, there were goblins left behind the bushes. If they escaped, everyone would suffer without sleep, so I moved a little faster first.”
“Did you take care of so many of them in that short amount of time?
Thalia’s misunderstanding seemed to be growing.
“Mr. Ian, have you ever seen hobgoblin byproducts being collected? I’ll teach you, so come and have a look.”
Going to Hobgoblin, Talia first pulled out her right buck tooth.
Next, lay him on his back and cut off the pus sac hanging from his back with a dagger.
“Fortunately, the pus sac didn’t burst. If it’s this big, I’ll get ten silver coins for one.”
Six pus sacs the size of an adult fist hung from the Hobgoblin’s back.
Talia tied the ends of the pus bag she had cut out so it wouldn’t leak, and put it in a bag with her bucktooth.
In the meantime, the other party took the goblin’s bucktooth.
The bucktooth was an evidence for merit points.
A few of them had completely lost their buck teeth because of my fierce attack, but they didn’t really care.
Each goblin had one point, so it was good to have, and it was enough without it.
It feels like a fairy tale that has fallen to the ground.
“By the way, Thalia, what are the pus bags used for, so they sell at such a high price?”
“That… it’s used to make paralysis poison.”
Talia answered with a little hesitation.
Then Nick, who was next to him, smiled and spoke up.
“That’s right. I use it to make paralysis poison. It paralyzes a very important part.”
“yes?”
When I asked back as if I was talking about something, Nick said with a toothy grin.
“That, that, that. If you get hit with that one, the area around it hardens like a stone. It’s a very useful item for a night full of confidence for men. Cheek.”
“ah…”
I could easily understand what Nick was saying.
Talia had already been avoiding the seat.
After a while, the group collected all the by-products and went to bed again.
As luck would have it, after meeting Hobgoblin, no more goblins appeared.
It was the tenth day since I went out like that.
Finally we reached the troll habitat.