Chapter 5 – Questing and Pest Control

In the afternoon, we decided to catch up on some much-needed sleep and hit the sack. Seeing how we woke up only about an hour before dinner, we really did push ourselves a little bit. After dinner, we went shopping for some supplies and managed to get our hands on some salt and spices. Thankfully, this world seemed capable of mining salt thanks to the existence of magic, so that was a huge worry off our shoulders. We were both worried whether salt would even be available on the market, as humans from a modern society, not having salt in our meals would be very unpleasant.

We also wanted to buy some spare weapons, but didn't have the Coins for that anymore. Our remaining fund dwindled down to one silver and four bronzes, or 104 Coins, after we bought the spices and salt. And with that, a day after we came to Sandhol, we were now on our way to do our very first quest, with the hopes of gathering enough Hippocrates' Herb stalks to let us jump straight to E-rank.

Originally, our goal was to stay in Sandhol until we made enough money to buy some horses to help us leave the country sooner, but we soon gave up on that idea. Horses were pricey. Ridiculously pricey. In order to be able to afford a horse, we'd need to do C-rank quests at least. That'd take too much time, so we shifted our plans to start moving towards the Britian Union in the north while doing quests to earn money and slowly raise our rank. Being too explosive would no doubt attract eyes to us, so it was better to stay low for the time being. At least, as much as was possible.

Early in the morning of the next day we headed out to the forest north of Sandhol. At the guild, they were so kind to show us one Hippocrates' Herb so we would have an easier time recognizing it in the wild, which allowed Merlin to use [Analyze] on it. Thanks to this, an area with a dense concentration of these herbs appeared on Merlin's [Map].

The Hippocrates' Herb likes dim and wet areas, so we were headed to a shallow pond in an area of the forest where the foliage let only a minimum of light pass, according to what Merlin could gather from the topographical view of his [Map]. It was the perfect place for these herbs to grow. The forest was even darker than usual due to us having left the inn to finish this quest this very early in the morning, when the sun was still behind the horizon. We managed to catch up on our sleep yesterday, so now we were full of energy, reaching our destination in only about 30 minutes.

The pond itself didn't seem to be known, since getting to it required walking up a fairly steep hill completely covered in bushes and low hanging branches. Safe to say, if it weren't for Merlin's [Map], I never would have even though of going up this hill. It was not worth the trouble to simply explore the area and see what's up there.

"Woah, there's a ton of them."

What lay before us was a quite the fantastical sight. The Hippocrates' Herb was a blue flower that reminded me a little of tulips. Dozens of these herbs pierced the water at the edges of the shallow pond like tiny watchtowers. There were a few willow trees that encircled the entire pond and loomed over it like guardian spirits, further increasing the magical atmosphere of the place. I wouldn't even be surprised if a fairy popped out of the pond and gave us a magical sword of legend.

"Well, let's start gathering them I guess."

Merlin bent down and gently plucked one of the herbs. What we were after were their stalks, not the flowers themselves. Apparently, there is some special nectar in the stalks that helps with healing properties and alchemists and apothecaries use it in healing potions, so the demand for it is always high. The flowers on top of the stalks are apparently useless apart from their looks.

We gathered enough to finish the quest multiple times, but still left a dozen untouched, so that the herbs could regain their numbers. At the gate, we showed our adventurer cards and safely entered without the need to bribe any guards this time. We turned in about 50 of the stalks we collected and Merlin kept a few for himself, so we got a total of 50 coins and 150 guild points.

"Congratulations on successfully completing your first quest! Five times at that! You guys really must've lucked out on finding a good place for these somewhere near here, didn't you? Won't you share where you found them with me? Please?"

Maya leaned on the counter and gave us puppy eyes as she pleaded for us to disclose the location. I didn't have a problem with that personally, but Merlin was the one who technically found it.

"Ask this guy, he's the one who found the place, after all. I'll go check out some of the quests in the meantime."

I pointed at Merlin.

"Hey!"

I left Merlin behind and went up to the quest board. It was still early in the morning, so the few adventurers that moved through or lived in Sandhol hadn't managed to snatch all of quests yet. Unfortunately for me, apart from the repeatable gathering quests, most quests were D-rank and above, meaning we couldn't take them. We really need to get our rank up fast. There were some F-rank and E-rank quests, but they were mostly clean this or help find this pet or whatever, boring stuff.

'Hm?'

A request I didn't notice at first glance then caught my attention.

[Quest description: Eliminate a goblin nest in the north-east of Sandhol's forest

Rank: E

Reward: 3 silver coins, 60 points]

'Goblins…'

Short, green, bald and smelly creatures. Attracted to shiny things and dark dwellings. From what we learned back in the castle, the goblins in this world were the type to kidnap women of other races to use as breeding stock because there were no female goblins. The type of goblins that made my blood boil.

I tore the quest off the board with coldness and disgust in my eyes. My class might not be 'Goblinslayer,' but it still begins with a G and has 'slayer' in it, so I'd say it's close enough. Not a fucking chance I'm letting these pests live a second longer if I can help it.

Honestly, I don't even know why I hate them this much. I just know that my very soul refuses to acknowledge their existence and I will stop at nothing to purify the world from these little shits.

I returned back to the receptionist counter where Merlin was showing Maya where approximately he found the pond on a regular paper map.

"I see you decided to share the location?"

"Well, we're going to leave in a few days anyway."

He said as he looked over at me. His gaze wandered down and Merlin pointed at the piece of paper I had in my hand.

"What's that you're holding?"

I placed it on the counter as a sadistic grin formed on my face.

"Our next quest."

○○○

After leaving the guild, we went to the Spider's Web Inn to let them know we would be out of town for most of the day, as per the contract. Well, it wasn't actually written in any contract, but since they were kind enough to prepare some food for us if we let them know, I decided to take them up on the offer.

Lisa was, as usual, reading some book. Well, no wonder, it must be super boring to sit behind the counter almost all day waiting for potential customers to walk in. It's not like she doesn't have any breaks or anybody to switch her shifts with, but from what I heard from her, Maya's and Lisa's eldest sister, who usually takes care of the counter, is currently on a honeymoon with her husband, since they got married only a few days ago. With Maya and their father working in the guild, and their mother in the kitchen, it fell down to Lisa to hold the fort as the receptionist for the inn.

"Hello there, Lisa."

I greeted the young girl and she raised her head away from the book.

"Astoshan, Merlin, you're back! How was it? How was it? How did the quest go?"

Lisa put the book down and cheerfully ran up to us with stars in her eyes. It would appear that in order to pass most of her time working at her family's inn by reading books, she really fell in love with stories of adventurers and other combat professions. This has led her to idealize adventurers and knights, so she was always eager to listen to stories and adventures the people staying at the inn had to tell.

"Nothing too interesting, we just collected some herbs and then turned them in for rewards. We're about to go on a much more interesting quest now, though."

I then told her about how Merlin managed to find an isolated pond full of Hippocrates' Herbs, and despite the lack of action, her eyes never lost that starry look. It was endearing to see someone enjoy talks about our adventures this much.

"Really? What kind of quest?"

Lisa's eyes began sparkling even further as she put her arms in front of her and balled them into fists.

"A goblin nest extermination. Speaking of said quest, we won't be back for lunch, so do you think you could call your mother for us?"

"Ew, goblins."

Lisa looked to the side with a sour look.

"And sure! Give me a minute."

She then ran off to the kitchen area, leaving me and Merlin in the lobby by ourselves.

"She sure is energetic, especially around you."

Merlin added as he sat down on one of the benches prepared in the lobby. We'll be leaving Sandhol the day after tomorrow and most likely won't ever come back. I had no intention of staying here for her sake. Even if she was already considered an adult by this world's standards, which is once someone turns 15, and the age gap wasn't large between us, it still felt off, so no thanks.

"She sure is."

I gave Merlin a flat reply and leaned against the counter. We didn't need to wait for very long, maybe about five minutes. A woman that very much resembled an older Lisa and Maya came out carrying two wooden boxes. Lisa followed closely behind her mother and was cheerfully telling her about our plans for the day.

"I hear you two are going to go exterminate a goblin nest?"

"That's the plan, Mrs. Arkleit."

Mrs. Arkleit handed me the two boxes with a gentle smile.

"I believe I told you to simply call me Hana, I dislike such formalities."

She then looked at us with a serious but caring gaze.

"Be careful, stay safe and come back. You hear me, you two young'uns?"

I chuckled, but inside, I was rather astonished by the mother-like warmth Mrs. Arkleit exuded. She really reminded me of my own mother with her boundless kindness. Heck, I don't even know why she's being so nice to us. Even yesterday during lunch and dinner, she was just a boundless well of warmth and care when we chatted with her intermittently over food. Was it simply because we were nearly the same age as her daughters or because Lisa took a liking to me? Well, whatever, I'm no mind reader. Let's just drop it and be thankful for things as they are.

"And I believe I told you that calling a much older and married woman by her first name is too awkward, so you'll have to bear with it. Thanks for the food, and… we'll be back."

"Thanks for the food you made for us. We'll be back."

Both I and Merlin thanked her for the food and promised to return as we started making our way out of the inn.

"Good luck and give those goblins what they deserve!"

Lisa waved her hand at us with a cheer of encouragement.

"Don't you worry, we'll give them hell and then some."

I waved back at Lisa and we finally left the inn's premises. We made our way through the city, exited through the gate and started heading towards the place Maya pointed out on a map. We walked with brisk and confident spirits, ready to give some greasy goblins the sweet release of death.

We didn't know what fate had in store for us back then.

○○○

As I hid in the thick of the bushes, I looked at a small cave entrance, barely tall enough to let a human pass through. It took as around two whole hours to get here, so it was soon going to be noon. We decided to have our lunch after we finish clearing out the nest, as fighting with a full stomach could prove a bit uncomfortable.

"That's a goblin nest alright."

Merlin merely nodded in his usual silent manner. The cave entrance had two goblins arguing about something in their disgusting grunts and a third goblin sprawled over at the cave entrance with a bottle of alcohol in its hand. Probably something it stole from some passing merchant.

"I'll check how it looks inside, give me a second. Nether Ears. Sonar."

Merlin cast two sound magic spells. The first greatly increased his ability to hear things, and I really mean greatly. The second spell allowed him to be able to tell individual sounds more easily apart.

"I sense some 23 heartbeats. Two are beating very fast, as if they were scared. My best guess is that those two are human."

The biggest flaw of Merlin's [Map] was that he couldn't change the depth of whatever he was viewing. He could zoom in and out, but he couldn't see underground unless he himself was underground. As such, sound magic proved to be immensely helpful in figuring out the number of beings in a closed structure. It would be much harder to successfully utilize these spells in an open area because of the overstimulation of sounds coming from all directions, but focusing your hearing only in one direction inside an enclosed space made it much easier to get a proper grasp on the number of enemies in the targeted structure of choice.

"Humans, huh. Let's get going then. I hope it isn't too late."

"Got it. I'll cover you, as always."

I nodded in affirmation and gave Merlin my glaive, which he then stored in his [Inventory]. The cave doesn't look to be too spacious, so I'd have a hard time using such a long weapon. Using the sword in this situation is the smarter choice.

I leaped out of the bush we were hiding in and quickly closed the distance with the goblins standing near the entrance. An arrow flew past me and hit one of them right in the chest. The goblin let out a small shriek and then dropped to the ground. The other goblin got startled by this and froze for a few seconds as it looked at its comrade's brand new corpse.

"Chiyek?"

The goblin noticed me only once I was in slashing distance. I swung my sword from left to right and beheaded the goblin before it could utter another sound.

I then slowly approached the drunk goblin and plunged my sword into its chest, ending its miserable life. As usual, a status window notifying me of gained experience popped up, but I dismissed it for now. It only talked about gained XP, after all.

I and Merlin entered the cave as he cast Create Light, which conjured a small but bright ball of light that hovered around the caster to provide us with some visibility. We explored the cave with care and alertness. I wasn't exactly planning on becoming a goblin's next meal because of some dumb trap it prepared.

Now that we were inside the cave, Merlin used his [Map] to notify me of enemy positions, so avoiding an ambush would be a breeze. Just got to watch out for the potential traps, though I doubt there would be any.

"Wait, let me try something."

Suddenly, Merlin asked me to stop and he quickly cast some incantation.

"Summon Skeleton."

A black magic circle appeared on the ground and a monster with pure white bones dressed in a brown, damaged robe materialized above it.

"Clack. Clack."

It made a clacking sound with its muscle-less jaws. I found it kind of cute, the way it stood there dumbly and just clacked on.

"I'll send this one first to confuse the goblins. Since it's a mere skeleton, I don't think they'll be too alarmed, but it's still better than them seeing two humans enter and then using the hostages as shields."

"I doubt they are that smart, but yeah, better safe than sorry."

The skeleton went ahead and the sounds of a fight broke out soon after. Merlin confirmed that the goblins on his [Map] began coming closer to us as they noticed the ruckus the skeleton caused. Both skeletons and goblins were E-ranked monsters, so in a one-on-one, it should theoretically be a fairly fair fight. However, because this skeleton was summoned, it had bonus stats depending on its summoner's MAG stat, which could give it a significant edge in a fight with same-rank monsters. A particularly useful effect of necromancy.

Before the goblins realized this was no normal skeleton, three had already fallen to it. It was truly doing magnificent work. The remaining ganged up on the poor skeleton and overwhelmed it with numbers. The skeleton took out one more goblin before it finally succumbed to the goblins' onslaught and fell apart like a Jenga tower.

"Bones just got destroyed."

"A shame, it was kinda cute."

Merlin looked at me as if I just said something outrageous but then simply shook his head with a look of exasperation.

"It took out four goblins, so we've got 14 left to kill. Let's get to work."

I nodded and prepared my sword as I slowly approached the passage where the skeleton just fought the goblins. I rushed from behind the corner and saw five goblins surrounding the remains of the skeleton that just fought them, scratching their heads in confusion at where this guy came from.

I began preparing a Magic Bullet as I ran forward and unleashed it at one of the goblins further away from me.

"Chiyiiii!"

The bullet struck it in the chest, dead center. It seemed to be badly hurt, but it wasn't enough to kill it, as it merely fell to the ground clutching its chest. I enveloped my sword in [Aura] and slashed at the goblin closest to me.

"Chiiyeek!"

It let out a yelp and then dropped to the ground with a gaping wound on its back. I saw another goblin drop with an icicle poking out of its eye and I quickly finished off the goblin I hit with the magic bullet earlier by slicing its throat. Merlin dispatched another goblin by planting an arrow between its eyes.

The last goblin was quick to act and screeched to alert the rest of the nest of our presence.

"Chiyeeeeeeeek!"

"Shit!"

Merlin stopped its wail by shooting an arrow into its throat, but the damage had already been done.

"Six more are coming, get ready!"

I heard the goblins running from behind the corner. I readied my stance and prepared myself for battle as five goblins and one larger goblin wearing leather armor and holding a sword appeared at the end of the passage.

"A hobgoblin, huh."

"Yeah, it would seem like it. You take care of that bastard, I'll take on the normal goblins."

"Will you be fine?"

I turned my head to look at Merlin but still kept most of my attention on the group of goblins in front of me. I saw a black magic circle appear on the ground as a stereotypical Halloween ghost floated out of it.

"Summon Ghost. You bet."

A ghost was indeed a perfect monster to summon using necromancy for this occasion. Goblins generally don't have any way to cause magic damage, so a ghost that's nearly impervious to physical attacks is a great counter for the goblins. The hobgoblin is the problem, however, because it's a D-rank monster. Monsters at D-rank and above generally have access to at least one magic so it could potentially get rid of the ghost, and because of the ghost's low HP, even the weakest magical attack is usually enough to kill it, thus it was on me to keep it occupied.

In the first place, this is supposed to be an E-rank quest. The appearance of a single hobgoblin alone is enough to raise the quest difficulty to D-rank. Normal fresh F-ranks wouldn't fare well against a single hobgoblin, let alone a hobgoblin and multiple goblins. Thankfully, we were anything but normal.

"Floating Board."

I created a translucent board I could step on and used it to leap over the five rushing goblins and landed in front of the hobgoblin.

"Chiyeyek?"

That seemed to surprise it as it made a weird sound. Unlike the other goblins from before, however, it recovered stupidly quickly and slashed at me with its sword in a haphazard manner. I blocked and deflected its swings with my own sword, creating a cacophony of metal clashing against metal.

I hadn't yet managed to raise my [Sword Proficiency] to 10%, so I didn't have access to any sword related martial arts. Thankfully, it seemed I wouldn't need them against my current opponent, as I had no problems with following its movements and responding to them.

"Astoshan, watch out!"

Merlin called out to me from behind. I delivered a full power strike at the hobgoblin, which made it stumble back a few steps, and I quickly turned my head to see what I had to watch out for.

"Chiyek!"

One of the goblins came rushing at me with its club raised high. I lithely dodged its attack, stepped behind it, and kicked it, making the goblin cannon crash into the hobgoblin. This created a nice opening and I slashed at the hobgoblin with my sword with the intent to kill it. The hobgoblin grabbed the goblin I just kicked at it with its free hand and used it as a shield to protect itself from my attack.

"Oh? You're smart for a mere goblin. A shame, this bonus intelligence is wasted on filth like you."

No, seriously, where the fuck is this hatred for goblins coming from? Sure, the way they increase their numbers by kidnaping women is utterly loathsome, but I've never met a goblin before in my life! When I think logically about it, I shouldn't despise these vermin as much as I actually do. It's almost like it's deeply engraved… in… my… soul.

'Hm?'

'HM?'

'HMM?'

Images of message notifications that showed up when I first opened the status window started flashing through my mind.

'Could that somehow be connected with the fact that the system had previous soul data stored for me? But how? Why? Oh, whoops.'

I ducked under the goblin corpse the hobgoblin just threw at me. I should focus on the fight right now, thinking about complicated things can come later.

'Sera, how's Merlin's side going?'

<One goblin remaining on Merlin's side, Master.>

Got to up my pace and quickly finish this as well, then. I charged at the hobgoblin and exchanged a few more blows with it. Because it wasn't fighting in an organized manner but was merely swinging its weapon like a crazed animal, it was easy to forcefully create openings for myself. I exploited one such opening when it prepared for a big and heavy strike and I kicked it in the chest.

The goblin staggered backwards, holding its chest with its free hand. I slashed at the hobgoblin's sword-wielding arm and my [Aura] covered sword sliced through its skin, flesh and bone like a hot knife through butter. The hobgoblin's cut off forearm fell to the ground along with the sword it was still holding onto.

"Chiyeeek!"

The hobgoblin pulled back his now heavily bleeding arm and aimed his remaining arm at me. A red magic circle appeared in front of it, signifying the begging of a chant for fire magic. I had no intention of letting it finish the spell and so I kicked the cut-off arm and flung it at the hobgoblin. Its concentration was disrupted by suddenly getting hit in the face with a flying arm and the spell dissipated. I plunged my sword into its throat, finally taking its life.

Turning around, I saw that Merlin had just finished the last of the four goblins that went after him and his ghost.

"Alright, let's go. Only three left."

[Your level has increased by 1]

"Oh? Nice timing, we got a level up from this fight. Shame it doesn't restore MP and HP back to full, though."

I opened my status window to take a look at how my stats looked now. My [Sword Proficiency] was now at 9%. A little more and I'd finally be able to use some of the martial arts for it. Thankfully, according to Merlin, the area where the remaining three goblins remained was rather spacious, so I decided to fight with my glaive instead.

We made our way deeper into the cave and came out to a massive room. The room was big enough that the light from the floating mass of light hovering around Merlin barely reached the wall on the other side. The sudden light alerted the remaining three goblins of our presence and they each turned towards us. Two hobgoblins and one goblin covered in tattoos and a dark cloak, holding a staff with animal bones on it. Or maybe some of those bones were human, I can't tell, I'm no osteologist.

"Two D-ranks and one C-rank, huh. Forget a slight mistake in danger assessment, this could've caused the deaths of many low-ranked adventurers. We're going to have to report this to the guild and demand a bigger compensation for this."

Goblin shamans were C-ranked due to their ability to cast a plethora of spells and they were usually accompanied by at least one hobgoblin to protect them, making them rather tricky to deal with, despite their lower stats than other monsters in C-rank.

"I'll take on the shaman in a long-range dogfight. You keep the hobs off me while I deal with that bastard."

"Got it."

I picked up two rocks that were lying on the ground, covered them with [Aura] and threw them at the hobgoblins. They didn't seem to expect the rocks to be thrown at such a fast velocity, so they were slow to react to them.

"Chiyek!"

"Chiyeeeek!"

'Good, now their attention is on me.'

I'd have to fight two monsters two whole ranks above me. Even if I was a mythical ranked class and had a lot more stat points than others at my level, fighting enemies two whole ranks stronger at my current level could prove problematic, especially since adventurers manage to become D-rank around level 16 if they have a good class. In most cases, however, adventurers become properly D-rank only after hitting level 20. I'm currently only level 10.

The goblins broke into a sprint with their weapons, an axe and a spear, ready to shred me into a hundred pieces. I started running to the left side of the room and Merlin moved to the right side while pestering the goblin shaman with magic. Because he was going to fight another magic caster, Merlin unsummoned the ghost that would have gotten destroyed in a single hit and focused all his attention on the goblin shaman.

After sufficiently distancing our fights, I turned around, ready to take on the two hobgoblins. However, before I could even prepare a martial art, an axe came flying down on me. I quickly stepped back and swung my glaive to deflect the attack.

"Kuhh!"

I grunted with surprise.

I severely underestimated their speed, huh. I didn't expect them to catch up with me that fast. I somehow managed to keep my balance after deflecting the axe-wielding hobgoblin's attempt on my life and throwing it off its gravity center, but I wasn't given much room to breathe, as a spear snaked its way towards me from behind the first hobgoblin. I stepped to the side to barely avoid it and prepared to attack the still-staggered axe-wielding hobgoblin.

"Impaling Thrust."

I used a piercing and powerful martial art aimed at the hobgoblin's throat with the intent to bring this fight to a one-on-one as soon as possible. The hobgoblin raised its left arm and sacrificed it in order to stop my glaive from reaping its life. The glaive pierced through its arm without resistance, but it succeeded in staying alive, wasting my efforts. It then kicked me in the stomach and I flew a few meters back, holding onto the glaive for dear life.

"Ugh, fuck, you bastards know how to fight with your bodies as well?"

I quickly got back on my feet and readied my stance once more. The spear-wielding hobgoblin ran at me and attempted to skewer me on the spear, but because it was merely wildly stabbing and swinging at me, deflecting and parrying its attacks wasn't too difficult. However, because of its reach, it proved to be a far more annoying opponent than the axe hobgoblin.

I decided to first get rid of this one. As long as it lived and provided support for the axe hobgoblin, I'd have an incredibly difficult time not getting hit. Lithely stepping backwards, I readied to throw my glaive at the hobgoblin with the axe that was now running at me.

"Spectral Lance."

The glaive flew true and struck the hobgoblin in its left shoulder. It seemed to have noticed the glaive flying at it and turned slightly to avoid being hit in the chest. I then pulled out my sword with my right arm and raised my left, aiming it at the spear hobgoblin.

"Magic Bullet!"

The magic struck the spear hobgoblin in its right shoulder, forcing it to drop its spear to the ground and making it stagger a bit.

"Chiyeeeek!"

It quickly recovered and looked at me with eyes full of hatred. I decided not to push my luck and went in for the kill while it was disarmed. My sword enveloped in [Aura] stabbed into the hobgoblin's chest and exited from its back. I twisted my body and sliced through the rest of the hobgoblin's torso, killing it.

"Chiyiyeeek!"

The axe hobgoblin didn't like me killing its comrade and leaped at me. It already managed to pull the glaive out of its shoulder, however, its left arm was now completely unusable. It swung the axe in a wild manner with no care for any openings it gave me. Honestly, even if I could see those openings, I didn't have the time to react to them as it tried to slaughter me with unbridled fury and animalistic vigor.

I kept on dodging, blocking, evading and parrying its attacks, but because I wasn't as used to the sword as I was to the glaive, this proved to be far more difficult endeavor than I anticipated. I was hoping it would tire out soon, but that didn't seem to be a viable plan as my hands were starting to go sore from its heavy hits.

I wasn't able to properly block one of its attacks and got my stance broken, leaving my entire left side wide open for the hobgoblin to freely attack. I hurriedly cast a Floating Board there, in an attempt to somewhat protect myself, but the axe shattered the magic and struck my side. Thankfully, the Floating Board was enough to greatly kill the axe's momentum and I stepped further back. I managed to avoid having an axe stuck in between my ribs and limiting the damage to only a cut, but getting your side hacked at with an axe still hurt a ton.

[Your Sword Proficiency has reached 10%]

[You have obtained Blade Arts]

A smile crept on my face.

'About damn time.'

A heavy attack came flying down at me from above. Thankfully, the hobgoblin's left arm was unusable, so it attacked only with its right arm, greatly diminishing the potential weight behind the attack. I calmly prepared my sword and gripped it with both my arms, pushing the pain of my bleeding side out of my mind. At the right moment, I swung my sword upwards and…

"Parry!"

…parried the attack with a monumental amount of strength. The hobgoblin's arm basically flew backwards and it got completely thrown off its center of gravity. It looked at me with hatred and fear, as it knew this one exchange just decided the winner.

"Slash!"

Without hesitation, I spun my wrist and delivered an [Aura] and martial art boosted attack straight at the hobgoblin's chest. A fountain of blood sprayed out of it and it let out a pained shriek. Dropping the axe, it took a few steps back and clutched at the gash in its chest. I shifted my posture, angled my sword to be level with my face and stabbed through the goblin's throat. I pulled my sword out and it fell to the ground like a doll that had its strings detached.

I breathed a sigh of relief, sheathed my sword and when I went to pick up my glaive…

BOOM!

…an explosion rocked the entire room. I looked over to the source of the explosion and saw that Merlin was still engaged in a magic slinging contest with the goblin shaman as a portion of the wall behind the shaman crumbled apart.

I put a hand on my bleeding side and decided not to jump in rashly. Now that the adrenaline was starting to wear out, the pain was a lot worse than I thought it would be as I winced every time I moved.

It seemed they were somewhat evenly matched when it came to their magic, but Merlin had the massive advantage of having access to all magics, while from what I saw so far, the shaman had only fire and dark magic at its disposal.

I watched as they exchanged spells and either blocked them or offset them with different spells. It was honestly pretty boring and looked more like a contest of who's going to run out of mana first. I then finally picked up my glaive and an idea flashed throw my mind. I looked between the goblin shaman and the glaive repeatedly, estimating the distance between us. I then pulled my right arm back into a throw-ready position.

"Spectral Lance."

I had to clench my teeth not to grunt from the pain on my left side and I threw the glaive as hard as I could with my injuries.

I'll need Merlin to use some healing magic on me once this ordeal is over.

"Chiyeeek!"

The glaive embedded itself in the goblin shaman's right leg, which made it lose concentration over whatever spell it was preparing to cast and it crouched down, wailing as the searing pain in its leg took its focus. Merlin quickly flung spell after spell at the shaman, as fast as his casting speed allowed him to, quickly overwhelming the goblin shaman who fell out of the battle flow and dealt have damage to it.

"Flare."

Merlin cast a tier 2 fire spell that generated a small fire ball that exploded upon impact. The orb of flame swooshed through the air, its heat disrupting the calm air where it passed. It hit the goblin straight in the face, burning and blasting the creature's ugly mug into dozens of charred chunks of meat. What remained of its body got thrown back and crashed into the crumbled rubble from the previous explosion that startled me when I went to pick up my glaive.

"Well, I guess that does it."

I looked down at the corner of my vision at the message that popped up, informing me of gained experience. A shame we didn't get another level from that, considering it was a C-rank monster, but oh well.

"Fucker finally kicked a bucket thanks to your timely intervention. A little longer and I would have run out of half of my mana."

"Only half? Ah, whatever. Can you give me a heal or throw me an HP potion? I got a little beat up by the axe bitch."

"Ah, sure, one second."

Merlin fiddled with the air for a few moments and then a bottle with a green liquid appeared in his hand.

"Catch."

I caught the potion and gulped it on the spot. I felt the gash on my side instantly start to close as the pain gradually faded away.

Finally able to look around properly, I noticed that there was another opening, apart from the one Merlin made with his previous explosive spell that shattered a part of the wall.

"I'll check up on the state of the two humans, you go check out what you opened up with that explosion of yours."

He gave me a thumbs up and we separated after he threw me a fire torch I could use for light. I set it aflame with Ignite, a very simple lifestyle magic spell. The spell was about as strong as a lighter on Earth, so nothing too fancy, but still quite useful.

As I neared the opening, the stench from inside that room started assaulting my nose. Pretty sure if it weren't for my [Abnormal Status Immunity] I'd be vomiting my guts out by now from the nausea. It smelled like death, feces and other decaying organic matter all mixed up together, can't imagine staying in that is a pleasant experience.

When I entered, the torch illuminated a view I'm sure would make anyone with a weaker stomach empty whatever they ate in the past 24 hours. Multiple abused and malnourished female bodies in tattered robes lay strewn about in the room. It took me one glance to understand they were all dead. No way a regular human body could take this much abuse. I won't go into excruciating detail, but know that no being worthy of life would ever do shit like this.

I moved the torch to illuminate the other portion of the room better and saw girls my age tied up among a number of shiny jewels and coins in a corner. When they saw me, they both seemed to try to make themselves smaller as they shuffled further into the corner.

"It's fine, I'm an adventurer, you're safe now."

I walked closer and the older of the two, at least I think she was older, looked at me with squinted eyes. Oh, guess that's why they backed off before, the light hurt their eyes. Yeah, I guess that's what would happen if you're in complete darkness like this for a prolonged period of time. Stupid goblins and their dark vision.

Seeing them this close, I noticed that their clothes weren't tattered and apart from some bruises from the ropes and cracked lips from obvious dehydration, they were mostly fine. A little hope in the despair, I suppose.

"Yo… u… ha… ve… to- Cough. Cough."

The visually older of the two tried to talk, but her voice was hoarse and it seemed like just talking hurt her.

I quickly knelt down and started unfastening the canteen of water I had on me. One of the few extremely useful purchases we made at Sandhol.

"Hey, hey. No talking. You're severely dehydrated and I imagine you tried shouting for help quite a lot. If you forcefully try to talk now, you might damage your vocal cords, so no talking. Just know you're safe now."

After attempting to calm her down, I gently held her chin and helped her drink the water from the canteen.

"I'm Astoshan, an adventurer. Don't you two worry, you'll be fine now. I promise."

I then helped the other girl drink some water as well. This should help them get at least some energy, I hope. I cute their ropes with the sword and visually checked their heads and stomach for injuries, just in case, but apart from the bruising in the areas that were tied up, they seemed mostly fine.

"Think you two can walk?"

I asked and looked at them. The younger one managed to stand up with some difficulty and nodded her head. The older one, however, simply rolled up her skirt a little and revealed her legs, one of which was bent in the wrong direction.

"Oof. I'll take that as a no."

I pondered for a second about how to help her out, but because I'm no doctor and have non-existent medical knowledge outside of CPR, I just decided to wing it.

"Here, hold this."

I gave the torch to the girl that wasn't mobility impaired. Soon, my arms would be occupied.

"Alright, sorry if this hurts."

I crouched down and put one of my arms below her knees, trying to avoid her broken leg as much as possible so as not to hurt her, and one hand behind her back. She looked at me quizzically, unsure of whether what I was trying was a good idea or not.

"Heave-ho!"

With a single breath, I picked her up in a princess carry. I was trying really hard to not messily move her legs too much, in hopes of avoiding as much pain as possible. I carried her out of the horror room, with the younger girl following behind me on her own two feet, torch in hand. Seeing as these two weren't malnourished, just very dehydrated, I'd say they weren't her for very long. I'm curious as to why the goblins didn't touch them though, but that's a question for later. For now, it's good news they're fine, except for that one broken leg.

"Merliiiin!"

I called out to my partner in crime and saw him show his head from behind the rubble sprawled in the hole caused by the explosion. He quickly scanned the two girls with his gaze and locked his eyes on the girl I was carrying. His face contorted into that stupid grin of his and the back of my head started itching with unpleasant foreboding.

"Not only do you have an admirer in Sandhol, you decided to pick up girls straight from a goblin cave too?"

"Go fuck yourself. She has a broken leg, so would you mind taking a look at it and using a heal? Even without magic, I imagine you have a lot more medical knowledge than I do."

Merlin's forte in school were biology and chemistry, after all. Pretty sure those two subjects come with some medical knowledge as a bonus.

"Oh. On it."

Merlin's shit eating grin turned into a 'whoops' face that only feigned remorse. He hopped out of the hole in the wall but froze when he landed on the ground next to us. He looked to his side and his expression turned grim.

"Get in. Now. We've got uninvited guests coming, 11 of them. And guessing by the leading bastard's speed, the real boss of this cave is home."

"Well fuck. You don't have enough mana for another fight this big, I'm still injured, even if the wound has mostly closed now, and now we've even got non-combatants to protect."

"Which is why I said to get in. I'll close us in so we have time to recover, but we need to move. Now!"

I stopped standing there like an idiot and quickly climbed the pile of rocks and dropped down to the other side into a hallway. I didn't have much time to look around, not that it'd help with how dark the place was. I laid the princess-carry girl against the wall as gently as I could and then dashed out to pick up the other girl. Even if she could walk, she was in no condition to climb rocks while holding a fire torch, so it'd be faster if I carried her in as well.

I jumped down and grabbed the torch from her, picked the girl up by carrying her on my shoulder and just as I was done positioning her into a semi-comfortable position while making sure not to burn myself or her with the torch, I saw a massive two-meters tall goblin covered in armor from head to toe dash into the room. It had a massive sword strapped on its back, at least as big as me, and the way the goblin moved made it seem feral, even compared to the other goblins.

"CHIYEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEK!"

A guttural scream escaped its lungs and it came dashing in our direction. I made a run for the hole in the wall as Merlin covered the ground in ice to slow the goblin's advance. He also threw a few arrow spells at it, but those seemed to have little effect.

Once I and the other girl were safely inside, Merlin also jumped back in and started closing the hole with earth magic. I saw the goblin slip on the ice Merlin created, cracking the ground as it fell. It screeched again, literally dragging itself towards us, and just as it was a few meters away, the hole completely closed.