"Darling, the more I observe the forest's situation, the more I feel like something is wrong."
"What do you mean?"
"There are too many goblins."
"Isn't that always the case?"
"No. There have always been goblins in the forest, but this is too much. In one week, we've killed over two hundred."
"On top of that, other monsters and animals are becoming increasingly rare."
I didn't think it was a problem. After all, not only do we make money by selling them and taking on guild quests, but also, with so much goblin skin and bones, Maya has been able to reinforce the boar hide to improve my Doll mask.
And since I'm new, I haven't been too worried. But if Maya thinks something is wrong, then there really is a problem.
"What do you want to do?"
"For now, I'll have Poison and Earth investigate."
At those words, Earth sank into the ground, while Poison used the trees to move silently. I was quite curious about the puppets.
"Maya, if your puppets' outfits are made randomly, where do their powers come from?"
"From the puppets themselves. I used special woods mixed with materials of their attribute: skin, leather, minerals, liquids, gases, magi-tech, and so on."
"Unlike masks, where the body and clothes are equally important since they merge into a whole, puppets mainly rely on their bodies."
"Everything is connected, of course, but if we were to compare, the body represents a person's skills, while clothes, armor, weapons, or accessories are equipment."
"The ideal is to have a perfect base for the puppets and then give them suitable equipment."
"And that's what I did. Earth became an elemental puppet, increasing his earth-element power to the level of a Rank 6 magician. His staff helps him temporarily fight at Rank 7."
"Gold and Poison aren't at the same level yet, but I'm almost there. I just need a few more materials for their transformation. After that, I'll have to create equipment strong enough to match their bodies."
"But don't worry, even as an assassin, Poison remains very discreet, even if she's only Rank 3 for now."
Meanwhile, we continued hunting. This time, Maya used Gold to fight and brought out her craftomancer weapon: the Puppet Gloves, which use magic threads to recreate puppets connected to the mana core. She mimicked Earth.
With her powerful and versatile earth spells, even if they aren't stronger than Maya's, she can kill goblins quickly, though I don't gain points if I don't kill them myself.
For the investigation, we didn't leave the forest. Maya sank us underground, and believe it or not, but when properly cooked, goblins are delicious! They taste like cotton candy, but with everything meat has to offer!
For those who think goblins are living demons or humanoids, think again! This world does have demons, but they live alongside humans and other races. In fact, there's even a demon receptionist at the adventurers' guild, not to mention the S-rank adventurers and high-level mages from their race.
Goblins, on the other hand, are monsters. They are born from animals, dungeons, and anything capable of creating creatures. Like all monsters, their only directive is to kill, grow stronger, and reproduce.
In some novels on Earth, goblins are portrayed as rapists, but not here. Sure, they reproduce a lot, but only among themselves. At most, they mate with hobgoblins, who are just evolved goblins.
Several more days passed, and even I could see there was a problem. There were too many goblins, and even hobgoblins!
Not just them, but also other evolved goblins, such as black mage goblins, hunters, warriors, and many others.
By the way, these goblins earned me 300 star points for my first hunt of a black mage goblin, hunter, warrior, and all the basic evolutions. For the subsequent ones, 200 points.
Hobgoblins, on the other hand, give 500 points the first time and 300 for the following ones.
"Maya, my love. I don't think we can keep going like this. There are too many goblins."
Maya killed several goblins and hobgoblins with earth spikes, then made them explode, sending shards in all directions, piercing the goblins' and hobgoblins' skulls, killing them instantly.
"I agree. Let's go warn the adventurers' guild and the mage tower."
"And the other trade organizations?"
"Don't worry about that. The adventurers' guild will notify them."
I nodded, then we left the forest to reach the two organizations.
***
Somewhere else in the forest...
"How many royal hobgoblin guards do the goblin king and queen have?"
"Ten."
"Perfect! With the two of them continuously breeding and the increase in evolutions, we'll be able to destroy that small town and harvest plenty of bodies."
"And what about the goblins?"
"Them? Whether alive or dead, they'll be useful to us. The dead will provide us with bodies to exploit. The living will attack, bringing us even more innocent corpses and multiplying goblin births to perpetuate this virtuous cycle."
"Well... virtuous... for us."
"I see."
The men in black clothing, their cloaks hiding their faces, watched the massive horde of goblins of all kinds. Most of the females were giving birth in a secluded cave under the goblin queen's watch, while the others fought among themselves to evolve by devouring the weaker ones.
Some men were drawing circles of human and goblin blood, using dark magic to feed an entity at the center. It didn't seem alive—no heart, no breath of life, only dead energy.
The men fed it flesh and blood. As for the bones, they were turned into materials for future undead.
"You know, we could use all these goblins to complete the ritual and make it powerful enough. Why keep them for something else?"
"Our master needs an army. Even if goblins are weak, they are numerous. And above all, they reproduce extremely fast."
"And as he already told you, we have a virtuous cycle that brings us plenty of good things... for us and our master."
The man fell silent and continued the ritual.
What no one noticed was a small head emerging from the ground to silently observe and listen. Then, it hid again and sent a temporary earth familiar to deliver its report...