Running towards Rin, the goblins didn't even reach for their clubs. It was as if they were in a race where the first one to arrive would be the one to get the reward.
Prepared for the ambush, I continued behind the small rock formation, watching everything.
When the goblins reached the halfway point, I sent a mental command to Rin, causing her to quickly retreat towards me. Stopping beside me, she also held her club, ready for battle.
With my heart super racing, I swallowed dryly and tightened the grip of the sword as I waited for the goblins to appear.
Fulfilling my expectations, it only took a few seconds for the goblins to appear around the corner to the back of the rock formation where we were standing.
Due to the dispute over who would be first, two of the goblins were hand-to-hand, pushing each other as they made the turn. Thanks to that, they made things easier for me.
Using a single downward swing of the sword, I snapped the neck of one and with a continuous thrust, the blade crossed through the other's shoulder and broke its torso.
Having observed the scene, the third goblin still tried to slow his speed while staring at me. Unfortunately for him, his attention was on the wrong opponent.
Showing her power, Rin hit his head with her club, causing him to fall backwards with his body already lifeless as he hit the ground.
"Easy-peasy," I said.
I didn't expect Rin's practically non-existent feminine skills to be so effective. But well, thanks to that we were able to easily eliminate those three.
Still holding my guard high, I glared at the five remaining goblins. The fall of the third goblin caught their attention, which caused them to immediately move towards us while making incomprehensible sounds.
At the same time, I heard the sound of the system announcing that the magical essence had been collected. Wasting no time, I put everything into force.
---
You have risen to level 7!
---
Having gained another level, I couldn't contain my smile as my confidence was overflowing through my pores.
"You can come at me, I'll slice you all up!"
I shouted excitedly as I prepared to intercept the goblins.
Even though Rin killed one of them, their fierce gazes all seemed to be focused on me. Although I was ready for the clash, their shrill cries sent a chill running down my spine.
Even if my confidence was sky-high, I was not foolish enough to go against all of them at once without being one hundred percent sure of my victory.
"We're going up!"
Turning around, I started to climb up the small rock formation while Rin and Kurama followed me. Although small, it was considerably tall and could easily accommodate the three of us.
In a short period of time, the five goblins arrived where we were previously and were standing before us.
Although climbing the rocks would leave us without an escape route, at the moment that was the safest place to fight our opponents.
Since there was only one way up, it served as a funnel for the goblins. This way, we only had to worry about one at a time without the fear of being caught in the back.
As I looked down anxiously, the goblins were pushing each other as they tried to climb up.
"Guiiiii!"
A shrill scream to the point of making my eardrums hurt echoed beside me.
Taking a quick glance at Rin, she was raising her club menacingly as she looked ready to jump on the goblins at any moment.
"No!" I yelled. "Don't do anything stupid, just stay still where you are and don't yell."
"Guiiiiiiiiii!"
With an inextinguishable will to fight, she screamed again. Somehow I could understand it as if she was saying, 'I can do it!'.
Obviously, she was just overconfident. If she jumped in there, it would only be to die, and it was not my intention to have to look for another goblin to tame at the moment.
"If I hear one more noise come out of your mouth, I won't feed you for a whole day."
Hearing my ultimatum, though dissatisfied, she backed off.
Even as I dealt with Rin's little tantrum, my attention still remained on our opponents below. At the moment, they seemed to have reached a consensus and started climbing the rocks neatly.
With their keen agility, they approached in the blink of an eye, but to their misfortune, I was already prepared.
With one swift movement, I slashed from top to bottom towards the first goblin in the line.
Even though it tried to defend with the club, it was useless. My sword cut both of them simultaneously.
While I thought the next ones would be more cautious, it was totally the opposite. With reckless courage, they simply kept advancing to the last of them without seeming to think of the consequences.
After cutting them all down with an ease that was the complete opposite of what I expected, I was momentarily speechless. All I did was stare at the bloody corpses on the ground.
It seems like the goblin trait of feeling no fear coupled with their dumbness is something I'll be able to explore quite a bit.
From what I understand, they are similar to ants. No matter the size of the opponent, they will fight without caring about anything else. But although they don't make much difference alone, it will be another case if I have to go against many.
***
After we got off the rocks, we went to check out the other baits.
Even though some had already been completely devoured, we still managed to catch a few more goblins.
Since it was a golden opportunity, I prepared more baits and we repeated the whole process again. Fortunately, there was no moment when we needed to fight more than four opponents at once.
Taking only a short break for lunch, we quickly returned to hunting the goblins frantically until dusk. In the process, we killed a few dozen of them.
Unfortunately, as the saying goes, all good things are short-lived. There came a time when no matter how hard we looked, we couldn't find any more goblins.
Since that was the case, I asked Rin to lead me to their lair. With her leading the way, it didn't take us long to reach the foot of a mountain. Having the direction Rin pointed me in, I could see the entrance to a cave that lay between some giant rocks.
As we approached, I cautiously checked the surroundings, but no goblin came into view. To my surprise, when we reached the entrance to the cave, there were only four goblins who looked very wounded.
The cave itself wasn't big either, the entrance seemed to be at most one meter wide with about two and a half meters high. The area inside seemed to be no more than five square meters.
Given the size of the cave, obviously not all the goblins we killed could fit in here, some were probably sleeping outside.
Since there weren't many of them inside, I didn't prepare any plans and we simply moved forward. Although they tried to fight, it was a futile resistance.
"That was so easy that I don't feel a sense of accomplishment. There isn't even anything here that can be looted..."
I muttered to myself as I wiped the blood off the sword with a rabbit skin. Even though I know it cleans itself, I still clean it out of habit.
Despite my complaints, today's hunt was amazing. Even without using any magic essence, Rin managed to naturally level up to level 6. As for Kurama, he still remained at level 3.
As for me, I was the one who had the highest harvest, I easily reached level 9. But after reaching that level, the XP bar seems to be filling up at the speed of a slug.
It seems like the amount of XP I need to be able to go to level 10 is absurd if you consider the amounts from previous levels.
"Well, that doesn't matter, all I need to do is hunt more goblins."
***
After checking the cave carefully, I found no other entrance than the one we entered.
When we were hunting, I noticed that the river was not far from it and there were fruit trees nearby. With that said, being a safe and spacious place, this cave could make a great place to set up camp.
Furthermore, from what I understand from Rin, there seems to be another goblin lair in the vicinity.
Since that was the case, moving to the cave was a case of combining business with pleasure. However, now was not the time for that, I still needed to return to my current camp.
Because night was near, we went upstream and headed back. On the way, I grabbed any dry wood that appeared in front of me and put it in my inventory.
***
Upon arriving at camp, the first thing I did was make a huge bonfire some distance from where I was sleeping.
Since I needed to be careful that the clay pots didn't crack from the intense heat, I left them around the fire to heat up slowly.
After dinner, when the pots had already absorbed enough heat so that they did not suffer from thermal shock, I put all the pots inside the fire and added more wood.
"With that, some of my goals have been completed," I muttered as I yawned, "Well, it's time for bed."