As always, my plan to deal with the goblins was simple. I was using Usagi to lure them towards us, and as a safety measure, if too many followed her, she would continue running until their numbers diminished. Once that happened, she would lead them back to us, and we would eliminate them.
At the beginning, when Usagi appeared, the hunter goblins were the first to notice her presence. Even though she wasn't trying to hide, she was found quite quickly.
Without emitting the hysterical screams that goblins usually do, they simply charged at Usagi with frightening speed. But I wasn't afraid of her being caught since she is very fast. Moreover, since she was running along a pre-explored route, I was confident in her safety.
Their numbers were around fifteen, with levels ranging from 11 to 14. Although I had underestimated their speed, it was still within Usagi's capabilities.
Following our plan, she led them away, and due to her high speed, the slightly slower ones gradually fell behind. Although they hadn't completely lost track of her, it was still good enough.
After taking the goblins on a long run, Usagi was bringing them to our ambush location.
Kurama, Rin, and I were positioned a bit away from the goblin colony to avoid being discovered. As this place had denser vegetation, it was the perfect spot to take them by surprise.
"In position," I whispered. "Usagi is approaching with them."
I chose a large and sturdy tree to hide behind. Kurama squeezed into a bush next to me, assuming an attack posture with his fangs ready to be used. Rin, on the other hand, preferred to hide behind a tree on the opposite side of mine.
After we prepared ourselves, we simply waited in silence, our senses sharpened. The sound of birds and the wind rustling the leaves were the only sounds we could hear.
Finally, we heard the footsteps of the goblins approaching rapidly.
My breathing quickened as I remained motionless behind the tree, waiting for the right moment to strike.
Then, seconds later, Usagi passed by like a white blur, closely followed by the first six victims of the day.
Before they could even realize our presence, I swiftly lunged forward with my sword in hand and decapitated two goblins in a single motion. The sharp sound of metal against flesh echoed through the forest, and blood spattered on my clothes.
Rin, on the other hand, used her club to knock down the third goblin with a powerful blow. Meanwhile, Kurama grabbed the fourth one by the neck with his jaws and killed it before it could react.
Due to their speed, two of the goblins managed to escape and pass by us before being struck. But when they realized their companions had fallen, they decided to turn back and fight us.
That was a terrible choice on their part.
Having stopped their escape, Usagi was rapidly returning towards us, propelled by her strong hind legs. She leaped towards the backs of the goblins with her horn increasing in size and emitting a white glow.
In an instant, she reached her target.
With the mastery of the skill improved slightly, her horn grew enough to pierce through the goblin's chest, instantly killing it.
Meanwhile, Rin used her new sturdy club to knock down the other goblin, who tried to dodge her attack but failed and fell lifeless to the ground.
Lately, Rin had been breaking her clubs frequently, which could put her in a difficult situation in the midst of a fight. Because of that, I decided to make a new sturdy club for her. Although it wasn't exceptional, it still served its purpose.
I started by using the strongest wood I could find and used the sword to make one side slightly thicker than the other. At the thicker end, starting from the tip, I drilled some shallow holes all the way to the middle of the wood.
In each of these holes, I placed a properly prepared stone and securely fastened them in place with leather straps. Obviously, these were not ordinary stones. I spent a good amount of time selecting the most durable ones.
With the source of the most damage in place, I used resilient leather to increase the durability of the wood by coating it. With the first coating in place, I added another layer with thin strips of leather, just to be sure.
Since Rin's strength is absurd, I made two more reserves just as a precaution.
Returning to the hunter goblins, after the system collected their essence, it was obvious that they were a much more valuable source of XP than the regular goblins.
With no time to express my happiness, we prepared to intercept the nine hunter goblins that were approaching.
Despite the numerical disadvantage of almost two to one, this wouldn't be a big problem. In the past few months, we hadn't just been eating and hunting carelessly. We constantly engaged in simulated battles, be it 1v1, 2v1, 2v2, or 3v1 – we tried every possible combination.
Maybe it wasn't the most effective method, but I wanted to prepare myself for possible adversities. As simulated battles alone weren't enough, we started using regular goblins when we hunted. We engaged in team fights to improve our synchronization and disadvantaged fights to enhance our individual performance.
With that said, Rin and I were on the front line to intercept the hunter goblins.
My eyes fixed on the leading hunter goblin charging towards me, I anticipated its reckless movement. With a speed trained through months of battle simulations, I delivered a clean strike that cleaved it in half.
By my side, Rin acted with impressive dexterity, lunging forward and catching the next goblin off guard, crushing its head.
Even with two of them down, the fight was far from over as the goblins continued advancing towards us.
I prepared for the next attack when I noticed a goblin leaping onto Rin's back, taking advantage of the opening she had left by exposing her back. But I knew it was a deliberate trap on her part.
With a sharp movement after receiving the momentum from the Heavy Blow, her club rose towards the goblin.
With a direct blow to the ribs, some bones were broken as the goblin was thrown against a tree. At that moment, Usagi and Kurama, who had hidden on the sides, took advantage of the goblins' distraction and launched a surprise attack, causing even more confusion among them.
By now, I knew that the death of the hunter goblins was certain. Each of us had meticulously prepared for this moment and knew how to act in synchrony to win any battle. But still, tension ran strong in our veins as we fought.
***
As I walked through the battlefield, I began to store the bodies of the slain goblins in my inventory, as usual. Although it wasn't pleasant, I still needed to extract the magic stones from their bodies.
Even though I didn't know their value, they must still be worth something, right?
Although I had accumulated many monster corpses and other things in the inventory, I hadn't reached an apparent limit yet. Although I had doubts about the inner space, so far, it seemed to be infinite.
Setting that aside, initially, I wanted to dispose of the monster corpses as soon as I took what interested me, but I kept postponing it, and the number of bodies ended up becoming absurd. With the quantity I have, I can't just leave a huge mountain of corpses anywhere. But it doesn't matter; sooner or later, I'll find a way to get rid of them.
On the other hand, the amount of things stored in my inventory seemed to have some benefit. The more I used the inventory, the more things I discovered. Recently, I found out that I can organize things inside it without having to remove them. Furthermore, I can also see which goblins have magic stones and which ones don't. This allows me to separate them into batches and makes my work easier, preventing me from opening a monster's head or chest for nothing.
Although I felt like I could extract the stones from the goblins' heads using the inventory, I hadn't figured out how to do it yet.
After clearing the battlefield, we took a break to rest. When we were fully rested, we prepared to move forward again.
***
Throughout the rest of the day, we tirelessly hunted goblins. We encountered random hunting groups formed by common goblins, but our main target was the hunter goblins.
Usagi always lured them, and although they didn't always come in large numbers, we managed to deal with them. We hunted about 100 goblins in total, but it seemed like their numbers were endless. The cave they were in might be even larger than I imagined.
If they are able to survive by eating practically anything, then they shouldn't have many problems with a large number of them.
For the next two days, we continued with the same strategy, targeting the hunter goblins as the main source of XP. However, in the afternoon of the fourth day, something strange happened. The hunter goblins stopped appearing. In their place, the ones that came were the common goblins.
Although in smaller quantities, XP is still XP, so we eliminated them in the same way.
Something worried me: why did the hunter goblins stop appearing? It would be understandable if only a few came, but none appeared. That left me with a nagging feeling.
But since goblins aren't very intelligent, I quickly put my concerns aside.
Putting an end to the hunt on the fourth day, we moved away from the goblins' den, took out provisions from the inventory, and had dinner. Maintaining our daily routine, I practiced a bit of magic and then went to sleep to regain our strength for another day of hunting.