Exterminating Goblins

**K-412**

Fittoa Region, South of the City of Roa

Kian's POV:

The goblin fortress was located in a clearing within the forest, partially hidden by dense vegetation and built upon ancient ruins. The atmosphere was gloomy, with tall, thick trees blocking most of the sunlight, leaving the area shrouded in constant shadow. The fortress itself was made up of several makeshift structures built from wood, stones, and debris, forming a labyrinth of narrow and disorganized passages. There were rudimentary watchtowers and wooden barricades at the main entrances.

I was hidden among the trees, observing the goblins' movements inside the fortress.

Taking advantage of the falling night, I began my stealthy infiltration, gradually approaching the fortress.

As I neared a patrol of three goblins, I withdrew three shurikens and threw them towards the group, hitting two in the neck and one in the head. Passing through them, I continued to eliminate the patrol squads swiftly and silently using shurikens and kunais.

After clearing the outer patrols, I moved further inside the fortress, where I found a larger group of goblins preparing to feast on some kind of prey they had hunted.

Drawing my tanto, which was on my back, I assumed the stance of the Sword God Style, which is my favorite among the Three Sword Styles. Aiming at an unsuspecting goblin, I quickly advanced towards it, already enhancing myself with Touki.

While the goblin was still raising its hands with a piece of meat, its head was already flying through the air. I paused in the middle of the goblins, who had not yet understood the situation. With a swift spin, four more heads flew off.

At that moment, the goblins began to react, grabbing any weapons within reach and charging towards me. Leaping onto the shoulders of the first one, I thrust my blade into its head and then jumped to the next target. Just as I faced my next opponent, a larger and stronger goblin came charging at me—it was a C-rank goblin warrior, and I could see more of them approaching in the distance.

Ignoring the goblin warrior's advance for a moment, I was already in front of my target, raising my tanto and thrusting it into its heart. At that moment, the goblin warrior was beside me, raising its rusty sword aimed at my head.

I then poured a bit more mana into my Touki for an instant, allowing me to move as if the world were in slow motion, as seen through my Sharingan. In this slowed world, I grabbed a kunai and stabbed the goblin warrior in the eye with my left hand, as my tanto was still lodged in the other goblin.

As both fell, I spotted my next targets and used the [Silent Longsword] in succession, swiftly ending their lives.

After finishing off the last goblin in the area, the second goblin warrior arrived.

"I think that's enough testing of my new weapons for now," I murmured as I sheathed my tanto. Looking at the goblin warriors who were a few meters away, I raised my hands and assumed an unarmed combat stance.

"I've already spent too much energy on you lot. Since I've killed 19 of you, including the patrols, and there were about 100 of you here, I think I can finish the rest of you in 40 seconds without damaging the bodies too much." I said to no one in particular as I lowered my stance.

I quickly moved towards the nearest goblin. I didn't want to use [Reinforced Touki Strength] since it would make a mess of the materials, so I used a technique I managed to recreate after researching the [Flow] of the Water God Style, completing its prototype just before I left home.

[Water Stream Rock Smashing Fist]

40

I began counting as the first goblin warrior tried to hit me. I quickly deflected its hand holding the sword in a specific manner with my hands, which were concentrated with rapidly rotating Touki. After deflecting its attack, I counterattacked by striking the joints of its arms and legs, leaving it immobilized and groaning in pain on the ground.

39

Leaping towards the other two nearby, I didn't wait for their attack to counter. I altered the way mana flowed in my hands from flowing swiftly like water to swirling like a stormy vortex in circles around my fists.

[Whirlwind Iron Cutting Fist]

I struck them, releasing the Touki from the center of my fists. As the attack hit both of them simultaneously, three circular cuts appeared with a distance between them in a circular form. The first cut at the center was weaker, leaving only a slight wound on the skin, but the next two cuts were stronger, severing their hands and causing their legs to start slipping from their feet. After half a second, their arms fell from their shoulders, along with their torsos sliding off their legs, which were also severed.

38

Concentrating as much Touki as my young body could handle without collapsing on itself, I dashed among the goblins, alternating between the two styles while killing them, leaving the goblin warriors for later use.

37, 36, 35 …6

With four seconds remaining until the time I had set was up, I finally saw the main targets of this mission: the goblin champion and the B-rank goblin shaman. From the flame that the shaman was conjuring, I could already tell which element he was using.

5

The goblin champion was suddenly close to me. Using [Whirlwind Iron Cutting Fist], I struck him at the waist while he was still raising his weapon, causing cuts on his body that began to bleed profusely. When his attack descended towards me, I quickly switched styles, using [Water Stream Rock Smashing Fist] to deflect his blow while sidestepping out of the way and immediately counterattacking, landing a strong punch to his chin and knocking him out instantly.

3

As his blood-splattering body fell to the ground, I saw the shaman finishing conjuring a fireball about 2 meters in diameter, aimed at me. Looking at that fireball, I couldn't help but sneer.

2

"Don't die," I said as I raised my right hand, aiming at the fireball.

[Explosion]

Concentrating fire mana into a single point, I shot it towards the fireball, causing it to explode, leaving the goblin shaman with the right half of his body missing.

1

I finished right on time, then walked over to the shaman and stopped beside him.

"You can't die just yet, [Shine Healing]." I intoned, regenerating the shaman's torso and parts of his arms and legs.

[Multi-Shadow Clone]

I cast another spell right afterward, summoning five clones around me.

"Heal and bring all the surviving goblins here, then use movement seals on them so they don't move much when they wake up," I said as I placed a hand on the shaman and used a movement seal and a mana seal since he was the only one who could use mana actively.

"Now, let's get to work," I said to no one in particular as my clones had already gone to gather the goblins.

Walking over to the goblin champion, I healed him and applied a movement seal immediately afterward. After finishing, I headed towards the nearest goblin warrior and knelt beside him, placing my hand where his heart would be, according to the goblin bodies I had killed.

One thing I tried in this world a long time ago was to harness the world's natural mana, but as anyone could guess, I failed miserably. Since then, I've thought of ways to use natural mana, but they all ended in failure until I realized I needed living creatures for testing.

I could have used humans or some humanoid race for more accurate experiments, but I chose not to. My plan is that when I achieve a preliminary success, I will find some volunteers willing to take the risk.

The first questions I asked myself when I began trying to use natural mana were, why is natural mana different from my own? And the answer I arrived at was that they are like two distinct beings, each with a different nature.

For example, your personal mana—you can use it as if it were your arms and legs without any adverse effects, as it's mana you've produced, so it has your fingerprint on it, making it very distinct. However, natural mana is like a herd of wild and angry bulls, obeying no one's will and rebelling against any attempt to control it.

Magical items have no problem using natural mana because they are inanimate objects, but the body does not accept natural mana, and natural mana is also incompatible with each person's personal mana, resulting in what I'm seeing now happening to the goblin warrior after using a technique to draw mana into the body and try to merge them, or at least reach some kind of balance, like the Sage Mode chakra of Naruto.

The goblin warrior was convulsing, with blood oozing from his orifices, and parts of his skin also began to crack and bleed. With my Sharingan, I could see his mana in conflict with the wild natural mana, which alone was already causing damage, but when it clashed with personal mana, it triggered a backlash within the goblin warrior's body. If it were an ordinary goblin, it would die in little more than 5 seconds.

Natural mana, due to its raw and untamed nature, cannot be used directly by living beings without causing severe consequences. The human body or that of any living creature is not equipped to handle the violent energy of this external mana, resulting in a conflict that causes the user's physical deterioration. Any attempt to merge or harmonize natural mana with personal mana leads to an energy imbalance that the body simply cannot withstand.

Therefore, to use natural mana effectively and safely, one would need to find a way to transform this raw energy into a form the body can accept, or alternatively, create a device or some specific seal that can mediate and harness natural mana without harming the user's body.

Walking over to the next goblin warrior while pulling out my experiment journal, I noted down exactly what had happened to the goblin warrior's body and how I manipulated his mana to cause that result. Now that I have many test subjects, I can't wait to succeed. I'm sure I'll have to try many different types of methods until I find the perfect formula to use as a prototype.

But just imagining that I won't be limited by my natural talent anymore makes me happy. I really had a bad taste in my mouth when I saw that Rudeus had much more mana than I did, and even more so when I realized that even Sylph, who started training after me, will eventually surpass me in mana reserves. Even my sister will have more mana than I do because her talent is greater than mine, and she started training at the same age. Speaking of which, I wonder how she's doing now? I guess I'll only find out when it's time to send another clone to Buena Village.