"They're coming."
Elliot suddenly stood up and drew his sword. He positioned himself and looked around, caught up in the moment.
"This way."
Elliot indicates the back direction with his chin. You'll be able to see that it's a very good idea to get a hold of what you're looking for.
It's a good thing that the technique of the "Flower Warrior" glows for now, so it's very noticeable in the forest at night.
I'm sure he'll be able to find a way to make things easier.
Apparently Elliott is guarding the tent where the women are resting.
Back there, I'm not sure if you'd call it that, but I knew that there was another goblin at a distance from the tent.
Somehow, as I was running in the direction of the first one's fall, I saw a shadow moving ahead of me.
Elliot is using some kind of shiny skill, so the surroundings are intermittently illuminated.
The goblin I'm dealing with seems to have a sword.
With both hands he holds it at the top, giving it the air of a human swordsman.
I catch the sword, swinging it down with my shield and then cleave the sword from right to left.
The goblin pulls back and tries to get back in time.
That's a much better move than the normal goblins use in the daytime.
So this is a night goblin.
It seems to give me a head start, so I thrust in to check it out, and when I close the distance, I shield bash.
But it only scares me for a moment, and I don't lose my stance. What is it doing?
I tried to kick it by surprise in the chase, but it just screams in pain and doesn't collapse.
I guess it has a solid core or something like that.
Anyway, let's go ahead and make the first move.
I push with my shield, swing my sword, and if there's an opening, I kick with my leg.
After a few repetitions, the goblins will start coming out of the woods with their swords.
After catching it with my shield a few times, we match our swords when it makes a miscellaneous slash to the middle of the field, and we stare at each other.
It's one hand vs two hands, but my physical strength is superior.
I push just barely, and when the opponent puts more force into it, I relax my swords and push the shield.
This counter is neatly decided, the stance collapses, and I swing my sword down to stop it.
"Hey, looks like it's all taken care of."
Elliot calls out to me. I'm too breathless to reply.
"Is this the Night Goblin?"
"That's too precise judgment..."
The next thing he said surprised me.
"That's a night goblin leader. She's of a superior species."
"A female... species?"
While catching my breath, I look down at the remains of the Night Goblin leader.
When you become a higher-ranking species, you can even move like that, similar to a human.
I understood that it's still tough to go on an expedition, solely on my own.
''Two normal night goblins, their leader is that one, and a night goblin scout. There was one guy that can be called a mere soldier. Total of 4.....well, I guess other than the leader others were just weak stragglers."
"Hmmm ... this is near the Goblin Woods, right? Isn't there a good chance that they have friends somewhere?"
"The night goblin strain has always been a party of stragglers without much of a crowd. They didn't call their friends, and it's more likely that they're stragglers that attack these areas."
Well...
He rips open the chest of the goblin leader I defeated and takes out a magic stone.
The dismantling was also just trained by Marie in the daytime and it was too badly done by the noob me.
It's easy and fast to insert the blade along with the muscle and remove the flesh as if to hook the magical stone, but it doesn't work very well.
It's difficult to accurately cut the muscle because it's different for each individual.
The leader has a thicker chest plate and harder flesh than the other goblins.
It's more difficult to cut it's core.
In the end, while I was dealing with one leader, Elliot had finished dealing with the rest of them.
There's still a lot more demolishing of monsters left, isn't there?
I'll do my best.
Then Marie woke up without Elliot going to call for her, and I was replaced.
I felt a little uneasy, or maybe a little guilty, about leaving all the women behind while I sleep, but if I didn't get a good night's rest, it would be a hindrance to hunt tomorrow.
As soon as I entered the one-person tent, I surrendered to sleep and let go of my consciousness.
A dim light leaks from the edge of the tent.
This is because ... well, I guess we've made a camp.
"...Good morning."
I lifted the entrance and looked outside to see Marie and Patch working on something around the bonfire, and they looked at me for a moment.
"Good morning."
"Good morning."
"Can I help you with anything?"
"Hmm, go wash your face for now. And then I'll have you peel the potatoes for me."
Marie and the others seemed to be preparing breakfast.
I'm learning that's what people do when they take their turns later on..
I washed my face at a nearby lake and helped out with my gear.
Breakfast was a soup of potatoes and dried meat. And some portable food like dried dumplings.
There's also a salad of wildflowers that Trisiera collected from the area.
Can we eat this salad? Everything is okay with this, right?
"I heard there were night goblins in the city yesterday? Nothing special happened on our turn."
"Oh, yeah? Glad to see you're all right."
Marie began to exchange information with Elliot.
"Elliot didn't move from the front of the tent, you know. You're loved."
"...a fool."
Trisiera turns red and looks down.
"Haha, isn't it obvious?"
Elliot was out of the picture.
"Hey, honey, you don't have to wake me up when there's an attack, do you? I mean, if five of them are here, wake them up."
Marie is dumbfounded.
"Well, you could have woken me up separately."
Since Elliot didn't seem to be in the mood for it, I thought that was the way it was.
"I'll protect you like that!"
"Still, what are the chances? I don't want to sleep well. I want them to think more about their safety than my safety."
"You're safe with me."
Two people who don't mesh. I make a mental note in my mind to usually wake them up when there is a night raid.
"So how much are those night goblins from last night worth?"
To end the contrast between Elliott and the others, I shake the subject.
''Well… Four Night Goblins would be more than 60 copper coins, maybe 40 to 50 for the leader alone.''
"Oh. That's a pretty high price for a leader."
It's said that the size of a goblin's body is basically proportional to the size of its magic stones. And I heard that the quality of the higher species is also good.
That's good information, even if the five of us split it up, it's still less than 10 coppers...what? It feels like there's not much difference in the reward.
"The magic stones of the goblin species are on the rise right now, so it's possible they're higher. Congratulations, Yohei."
Marie said.
"Huh? Congratulations, should I get it?"
"Well, you were obviously fighting on your own at that time, right? You must own it."
"Really? Thanks for that."
I think it's harder to deal with four goblins. I was fortunate enough to be able to fight the leader one on one.
In that sense, if I'd had been with any other party, it would have been a split, so I'm grateful for that.
"'It's kind of hard for me to thank you, but... well, yeah, thanks for the action handsome."
"Like...? What?"
"Oops. Well, you know, a good-looking man. A nice word for Elliot, right?"
"Oh, yeah! That's exactly the word for me."
"Huh ... that's ridiculous …"
Marie looks like she's having a hard time.
"What are you going to do today?"
The plan before we left was to look at the situation around the goblin forest and decide if we should go around the outer perimeter, enter the forest, or go deeper.
"Well, I think I'd like to see what's going on a bit more... It's a good time to make some money, let's go into the forest to the shallow end.''
"Are you okay with that?"
"I think I can handle it in the shallow end. The problem is that we often clash with other parties."
"I suppose that's why I'll be able to get help when I need it."
"Yes, but that also means you could be asked to help."
"And Marie?"
"You don't like it?"
"That's the kind of thing that gets you in trouble. Well, you'll find out what that means for you."
It doesn't mean they are against it.
Patch, who is quietly listening to the conversation, and Trisiera, who seems uninterested in eating her food, also don't seem to have any particular opinion.
I mean, I occasionally see Trisiera talking in a whisper with Elliot and others, but Patches rarely talks to his friends unless she has to.
Sometimes I seriously feel like they going to forget I exist, but I wonder if that's good in its own way.
"...What...?"
I guess Patch caught me looking at her accidentally, or maybe it was just that she got a mindless zit in her eye and made eye contact with me.
"No, no. I thought others would like to hear what you have to say."
"Not really. Marie has told me what I need to know."
"Yeah"
I guess it's okay. I'll keep my eyes away.
"Haha, Patch is a smart girl. You can rest assured that she will speak up when it's really necessary."
"Oh…"
Trisiera is emptying the container and telling Marie something to gulp down.
Marie is stirring the pot quickly, so I wonder if she's asked for a refill.
Maybe it's the nature of social deficiencies, but the private conversation somehow feels like a bad idea.
After exploring the forest entrance for a while, I stepped into the forest before noon.
Naturally, the view is less clear, so it's possible that we don't notice each other and have an encounter.
It's more of a distraction.
"Stop for a moment, please."
Marie scurries up the tree and looks around. She's very light.
"I'm sure there's a little bit of a presence, but there's something a little bit northeast of you, maybe a goblin. I think it's a goblin."
"You wanna wait for me?"
''Well yes. It looks like we're getting close, so we'll intercept them in an open area around here."
"We are setting a trap, aren't we?"
Patch can make traps, apparently. I'm going to learn this too and follow behind to observe.
''Well if you have your hands free, help me out."
"Okay. What do you want me to do?"
"The twine over here to that branch no, not that one, but a higher, thicker one... that's fine. Tie it up."
"How do you tie it?"
"However you want to…"
I don't have two strands, so I can't make a simple hard knot. Anyway, I wrap it around in circles to keep it presentable. ...I'm clumsy.
Patch looked at the knot and froze for a moment and let out a sigh, but didn't say anything else.
''Please... be vigilant of your surroundings."
"Okay."
"I think I've been sensed."
"It's about time we got closer! Come back for the patch."
Marie shouted from the treetops. Patch quickly completed the trap and went back to the bushes where we were hiding.
Most of the traps were simple traps that simply strung strings in the direction the goblins were traveling. She had also set up one that looked like a trap-all."
"They're coming!"
Elliot, me, and Marie come down from the trees in the front line. Patch throws something and I hear a popping sound. Is it a grenade-like magic tool?
"It's just a signal bullet. I'm trying to their attention.���
Elliot explains to me in a calm manner.
"Since we've prepared so much, we're guiding them to come from the direction of the trap for sure, right?"
The trees swayed as they screamed "squeak, squeak, squeak" at each other.
The first one seems to have been caught in the straps and fell down in a heap.
The one at the side of the tree was screaming and holding his leg. Is it a pair of scissors?
"Right, let's cut the.... blade!"
Elliot's sword shines brighter and a larger than usual light blade attacks the goblins.
It looks like Elliot and his rearguard can deal with them directly in front of me. If that's the case, what I should be wary of is the bypass route.
As expected, seeing the advance team getting caught in the trap, several goblins were bypassing and approaching to slip by its side.
''There's more of them than I thought there would be! Looks like we have some friends nearby, sorry."
"No problem!"
Marie apologizes for her ineptitude and throws what looks like a dagger to control the movement.
Such a technique.
There's a feeling that Elliot's party has been showing some seriousness since they entered the forest.
''I'll take the one who turned right!"
I'm on the right side of the formation, so it's not surprising, but I'll tell you what I'm doing in case you're wondering.
You can see one daggered goblin from the right, followed by at least two more from behind it.
I can't see any bow-like ones, so I can just deal with them one by one for now.
Half-heartedly, I stick out my left hand and prepare to catch them with my shield.
The dagger goblins see it and try to go around it while feinting. It's the move I was expecting, so I put my sword out in that direction to check it and force it to roll into a shield bash.
I kick in and stop the movement and then swing down. It worked.
Two goblins with sticks and swords from behind. As I'm solo right now, it's time to use the magic gun...
As I pulled back, I tried not to get surrounded by the enemies, and stayed with them, trying to counter damage.
I didn't have any problems sticking around, but I could see the goblins approaching from further back.
Not good, I don't know what will happen if I get another one.
So, when an arrow flying from behind shot through the goblin's leg, there was a momentary gap in time.
In the meantime, I'm ready to make my resolve and fire hard at the sword wielder. The stick goblin came around and hit me from the side, but I ignored it.
It hurts more than I thought it would, like a spike on a stick. I felt like I'm going to cry.
I twist my waist once to dodge the stick goblin and then slash the sword goblin again.
This move seems to be just like a feint, and the sword goblin's guard fails, spraying a great deal of blood.
The stick goblins seem to have been completely distracted by me, and an arrow that flew in from behind shot them in the head and they went down. Okay, that went well.
At that moment, heat surrounds my right hand.
"What is it? I was cut!"
No, this time I was simply burned!
I turn to the last goblin and he is pointing what looks like a stick at me.
No, it's not a stick, but a staff?
"Goblin mage, make evasive maneuvers!"
Someone shouted.
I thrust out my shield and approached in a zigzagging, diagonal motion.
This was what I could imagine when they called it an evasive motion.
The goblin mage fired two balls of fire in rapid succession, but luckily they slipped aside and were avoided.
I used the momentum to hit it with my shield.
MY\y right hand is badly burned and hurts when I jerk it, but I thrust my sword in without a care in the world.
I struck the goblin, who tried to back away and escape, repeatedly with his shield.
Eventually, I slashed the head of the opponent, who had gone limp and slowed down.
It felt more like crushing it than chopping it off, but I put a stop to it.
When I look back at my companion to my left, I see Elliot swinging his sword, but Trisiera and Patch look at me. I guess things are almost done over there, too.
I hadn't checked on my party until I turned around to see how they were doing. When I'm in the heat of the moment, I tend to lose myself in the battle. Let's reflect on that.
Marie looked around to see if she missed any enemies.
"I am done over here, what's the situation?"
"Don't worry, the leader Eliot is dealing with the last one."
Trisiera replied with a calm look.
"Oh come on, don't we have to cover Trisiera?"
"She can't lose to that weak goblin. And I won't be able to cover her with my bow in a fight."
"Marie's on the lookout for her."
Patch was calm.
"Yeah. No, I wasn't able to cover you up at all. I'm sorry about that."
I felt sorry for Trisiera.
"Hmm, narrow-minded. But I think you did a good job."
"Trisiera is going to praise me? It's so different."
"...What?"
"No, it's nothing. Oh, it looks like Elliot's done with his guy."
I glanced at it with concern, but when it finally shimmered and did something, the goblin was down.
Just as he was about to fall down, the goblin let out a shrill cry.
Was that also a skill of his 'Flower Warrior'? It's really fancy all the time.
"Are you hurt?"
"Yeah, my right hand is burned and it hurts pretty bad. Can you treat the burns?"
"I can do it. Give me a minute."
He looked sullenly at my right hand as Patches approaches me with something.
"It's only on the surface. The firepower is low, but it's extensive and will need treatment. Put this potion on it."
The box that was handed to me was filled with a sticky ointment, which I scooped up with my left hand and applied it.
In the meantime, Patch held up her hand and mumbled something as she activated the healing technique.
There's nothing scarier than a healer's musings. I don't want to hear it.
Marie and Elliot collected the goblins' corpses and began to collect the magic stones.
"Is that one intact?"
"Barely..."
"Ooh, we've got a big one and a scout. That's not bad money."
It was just a bunch of normal goblins with a leader.
Was the center a diversion with normal goblins, with a higher species on the left and a wizard on the right?
Goblins think in many ways.
The large goblins are, as the name suggests, a purely upper-tier breed of goblins that are one size larger. They aren't as tight in form as their leaders, and their skills are rough, but they are strong.
Goblin Scouts are green goblins that are quick to move. It's unclear if they are acting as scouts, as their name implies.
The goblin mages I dealt with are of the wizard type, and it seems that they are often green when they grow up, but this one had ochre skin that was close to normal.
They probably hadn't grown that much.
Both of them had been prepped with the materials from the Monster Hunting Center, but this was the first time I had actually seen them.
It's a goblin paradise that lives up to its name, the Goblin Forest.
When I was thinking, Elliot and Marie were having a serious discussion.
''...I guess it's that one, after all."
They look as if they have found something good.
"What is it?"
"A large percentage of the higher species are well controlled. And the final alarming sound... the only conclusion I can draw is that there is a nest."
"Nest…?"
"The last alarm, it signals danger to our people. If it's just a straggler's party, there's no reason for the leader to issue that last warning. It's not impossible that there are still friends of those goblins out there somewhere, though."
"Hmm."
"This area is close to the entrance. If there was a nest, it would have been swept away, and we've confirmed that it wasn't, at least until recently."
"Does that mean a new nest has been built while we were losing our vigilance in the blood-slime fiasco?"
"I guess that's what it is, isn't it?"
"Should we clean it up?"
"Well, I don't know if it's the least bit offensive."
"Hmm? The way you put it, would you ever get mad at me for sweeping the nest?"
''Well, you might want to study up a little more. Well, I'm solo, so I can't imagine sweeping the nest by myself that often."
"What does that mean?"
As I had a hatchet mark on my head, Marie called out to me to go back and get some food.
I'd better ask her for details later.
When we got out of the forest and returned to the rest stop, we started making soup and moved on to eating it while melting the preserves.
"So, can we continue what we were talking about earlier?"
"Hmm? Oh, were we talking about sweeping the nest?"
"Yeah, that."
"Well, yes. Do you know that there are several nests on the north side of the goblin forest?"
"I've read through the information you gave me at the center."
"It's not that it can't be swept up, it's that it hasn't, but do you know why? "
"You're leaving the demon's nest unattended? ....no, I don't know. Why is that?"
"There's a plain to the north of the Goblin Forest, and that and the surrounding area are considered to be the point of the spring. So, well, consider that the goblins spring up from the north of the Goblin Forest."
"Hmm… I see. Well, I can see that the north side of the Goblin Forest is going to be a great nesting spot."
���Yeah, yeah. So, hypothetically, imagine you're a goblin that came out of a spring."
The matter of being turned into a goblin when I was reincarnated. I guess there are novels like that.
There's something fishy about that spring point, and I wouldn't be surprised if something close to that godlike white-haired girl was making it.
"Can you imagine? Now, you want to go into the woods and build a nest. But first, the forest is a great place to forage for food, isn't it? I want to get into the forest at all costs but there's a big nest there."
"Oh…"
I'm starting to get a bit of a story. It's like you're talking about conquering poison with poison!
"You get the idea. Firstly, a modest nest on the north side of the property means that you, the new goblins, springing up at random from the point of the outpouring. Especially when they get rid of the fighters and sleepers in turn."
"I see…"
"If we were to watch every single goblin and kill every single one, no matter how many people and money we had, we wouldn't be able to do it. There is no such thing. Even the higher-ups get creative about things like that but lose motivation quickly."
"And the second?"
"I guess that's the flip side of what I just said. We don't have the money to get rid of them. So manage it in moderation and keep it in a desirable shape for the Slurge."
"What do you mean by 'manage'?"
"You said there were some nests, right? When this becomes one giant nest, a dangerously high-ranking species can be born and grow in size. It could get out of control. So prune them to a moderate size before that happens."
"Ho…"
"And if the goblin territory itself is too spread out, it's unmanageable and unforeseen. So we'll keep them out of the area around the goblin forest regionally."
"That sounds like a lot of work, though."
"I suppose so. Not all of the new goblins are going to the forest, so we'll monitor and exterminate any goblins that go in the other direction. It is necessary to do this. If we can't manage the springs, and goblins spread to other fiefdoms, then the face of the Lord will be ruined."
Lords of this world seem to have a hard time....
Monsters are constantly being born, so it must be like a constant warfare system, and even then, because of the monsters, there is only so much land available for production. I'm used to getting by on this.
"Well, that's why you have to manage it so meticulously, but when individuals do whatever they want to do, even sweeping the nests, they get mad at you because you're out of the calculation."
''Yeah. I've heard that when you register a group of mercenaries, you're told to keep your mouth shut, and the individual mercenaries are basically a certain kind of "I know it's a common sense, you know". You haven't seen any recruiting for a large party to go to the nest, have you?"
"If you ask me, that may be true... I'd like to see it written into the rules and regulations and such."
"I think so. 'In addition to the matters stipulated in the law, to comply with requests and orders published in accordance with certain procedures' in the rules. It looks like that's the section called "The section". It's probably a request or order under some name, and it's in the mercenary guild's files somewhere."
"I see. Well, it's true that no one would try to hunt a nest solo if they were at the level of an individual mercenary. Do I need to be careful when I start collecting them now?"
"That's what it is, isn't it?"
"Whatever it was, it helped. I know I still have a lot to learn."
"I like your attitude. I like your attitude because there are a lot of people who don't give a damn about what the higher-ups say."
"Yeah, you're not trying to get caught in a serious situation or anything like that."
''There's a lot for the guild to deal with before it becomes a problem. Whether it's about the nest or not, it's hard to know if we can specifically charge them with punishment. But if we don't take it into consideration, we should be careful, because we'll be spotted and we won't be able to operate in the Slage."
"Oh, no, there's no penalty, but it's an administrative directive... or something like that."
"You can go against it, but if you do, you might not get the permission you need to operate next time for some reason?"
I don't know, it's not any different from what we do on Earth.
Should I think of it as familiar, or should I lament that humans are so raw, even in a fantasy world?
''I'll take it under serious consideration,''
"Hahaha."
Then, while Elliot and his friends are making out during their food break, I'll check the status.
******** Person Data ********.
Yohei Chikano (human race)
Job - Interferer (10↑) Swordsman (3↑) None
MP 12/12
Stats
Attack G+
Defense G
Agility G+
Endurance G
Magic G
Magic Defense G
Skills
Status View II, Status Manipulation, Add Job III (↑), Status Display Restrictions
magical finesse
Supplementary information
None
Apparently, the 'Interferer' and 'Swordsman' levels have increased by one... what?
Job addition III, yikes!
Was it open at level 10?
This could possibly be expected to be Job Addition III.
I immediately changed Job 3, which is "None", and displayed the selection candidates.
Traveler (3)
Citizen (1)
Rumble (1)
Survivor (4)
The Dagger Master (2)
Wizard (1)
The Mage (5)
Spearman (1)
Scholars (1)
Swordsman (3)
Warrior (1)
Translator (1)
Playboy (1)
Shieldsman (1)
I've already acquired the job up to the 'Playboy' before I left.
I've sensed that I acquired the 'Shield Man' in today's battle.
I've been using shields a lot, so it's not strange to get that kind of job.
The 'warrior', well, it's not because I've gained experience in actual combat, or perhaps because I'm in a state where I've done actual combat, so that's what I'm talking about.
I've been doing a lot of thinking about that, and I wonder if that's how I got it.
By the way, the side letters that appear in nouns, such as "leader" in "goblin leader," are not the name as it is, but rather an interpretation.
It's a word from the ancient imperial language of this world, which means "chief, the one who leads," and it's called "gerund nous".
In our language, it is called "Goblin Gelantnusch".
This ancient imperial language has become a kind of international language in the surrounding countries.
It seems to be a language that is used in the important places of politics and religion, but it has penetrated into the common people to some extent.
I think it's English for Earth... and I translated it into English and understood it to be a "goblin leader" in my mind. There are some others too, but its usage is more like the Latin of the Mediterranean world. I think so atleast.
Well, I don't understand Latin, so I ignore it.
When I think about it, I still use the language of the earth, or rather the language of Japan, so this kind of translation problem arises, and the fact that I'm thinking about it in my head may have counted as a translation experience.
What I don't understand is 'playboy'.
I'm not playing around.
Since I came to this world, I've been working rather too hard, to the point where I feel a little sick.
If I had to guess, I'd say that...
Usually, I change my jobs, and some people never change their jobs, but I change them one after another out of necessity or for fun.
None of the jobs last long, and I change them when I get bored. Maybe that's the case.