Chapter 14: Rescue and an Inquisitive Mind

The Goblin Leader was keener than I had thought. Furthermore, its flight response probably went into overdrive, as it dashed into the forest faster than the wind.

In the blink of an eye it went from Tote into the 『Ancient Forest』, rampaging through the forest as it knocked down trees left and right.

Finally, it arrived in front of a cave located in a small hole on a precipitous cliff.

There were two goblins in front of the cave.

The Goblin Leader sank to the ground in relief, but quickly ordered the lookout goblins with a couple words.

It'll be annoying if they report about me, so I minced the lookouts with [Whirlwind].

I immediately activated Analyze Environment to search deep into the cave, where I saw two goblins carrying an unconscious Carla on a stretcher-like thing.

Surprisingly, far from being wounded, her clothes were even without a scratch. It looks like I made it just barely in time. But I still need to prepare for the worst. After all, this was the 『Ancient Forest』, not even a part of the Millard territory; I've no need to hold back. At any rate, these goblins attacked Tote, which I had taken under my wing.

"Now, let's begin the devastation."

Mercilessly, and thorough enough as to not give them even a sliver of hope—this will be my way of keeping these filthy hyenas in check.

Let's see… Goblin Leader, because you ran so well I was able to make it in time, so I need to thank you.

"Here's your reward for guiding me here. Sleep tight," I said.

Since it was still frozen in fright, a slash was all that was needed to decapitate it.

As I had casted [Wind Enchant] on the dagger, I was able to slice through its neck like tofu.

I began my attack once I extracted the magic stone from the Goblin Leader's chest

The cave was fairly wide and maze-like, but there was no way I could get lost with Analyze Environment, and I'll kill any goblins I encounter.

I advanced in a straight line all the way to where Carla was taken without breaking a sweat.

It was a prison. There were several women in rags, bound by ropes.

I could easily tell that something happened here by their dead gazes. The women were most likely abducted from Tote and other nearby villages.

Their value to me wasn't very high, so I'll prioritize Carla for now.

Then, Carla was brought to a private room. "Let me goo!!" Carla screamed, having just regained consciousness. Around her was a group of several goblins.

Taking into account the things protruding out of the goblins, I really did make it in the nick of time.

I heaved a sigh of relief and severed the goblins' heads with [Whirlwind].

Their heads plopped to the ground as green liquid burst out of their necks like a fountain.

"Are you okay, Carla?" I asked.

She just stared at me in a daze before shouting, "Grey-samaa!"

She blinked the tears out of her eyes before embracing me.

Truthfully, Carla was much taller than I was, so she blocked my entire vision, which was why I couldn't tell what kind of expression she was making. But she was surely crying. She was still a child and was frightened to her wits, so that was only natural.

And so, I lightly tapped her back to calm her down.

She pulled away from me after a while as she hung her head, her face beet-red.

"Did you see, Grey-sama?" she glanced up and asked before moving to cover her right breast area, which seemed to have been torn during her resistance.

Honestly speaking, my entire vision was covered so I couldn't see anything. Although it did touch me since Carla was hugging me. Nonetheless, I have no idea how to respond in this kind of situation. She doesn't seem angry or anything, so she shouldn't think that I'm a pervert or something.

"Well, just change into this," I said.

In order to shift the conversation, I took out a change of clothes from my item box before handing it over.

"Y-yeah."

She took the clothes, turned around, and began to undress, so I turned around as well and folded my arms.

After a short while, she said, "I'm done now, Grey-sama."

"Okay."

I turned around to see Carla restlessly fidgeting, still beet-red.

"What's up?" I asked.

"Thanks…for saving me."

"No need to thank me."

In fact, a society where adults aren't concerned about children's wellbeing should just perish, so there was really no need for her to thank me.

Leaving that aside, it wasn't over yet; this cave wasn't that far from Tote.

It was actually so close it was a wonder they didn't get attacked until now. If left alone, Tote would get attacked again sooner or later. I need to extinguish this nest in its entirety.

"Hey, Grey-sama," Carla began.

"Hm?"

"I don't mind if it's you, Grey-sama," Carla said cryptically before turning her back to me once again.

As I thought, the thought process of a child, and someone of the opposite gender, nonetheless, is a bit over my head.

In any case, time is pressing so I'll move onwards to the next step.

The Goblin's boss is quite powerful, and I'm not so foolish as to believe that I can win against it while still protecting Carla.

On the other hand, she's just like Satella in that she doesn't look like she'll ask to fight with me. She also immediately overexerts herself which is extremely dangerous. It would be good to teleport her back to my room in Straheim regardless of what she says. In addition, this macabre scene is a little too strong for a child.

"Carla, can you close your eyes for a bit?" I asked.

"Eh?"

"Just close your eyes."

She stared at me for a while before her face quickly flushed.

"S-sure. I'll close them."

Her entire body was now as red as an apple and she raised her arms to her chest before meekly squeezing her eyes shut and pulling her chin in a little. I tilted my head in confusion at her weird behavior before teleporting her to Straheim.

Now that I've cleaned up most of my problems. The only thing left was to exterminate the wicked beasts that had multiplied far too much. And that boss of theirs would require a bit more effort from my part.

The magic stone I got from the Goblin Leader was quite powerful and would probably net me a new type of magic.

I searched around and discovered the perfect magic for slaughtering goblins.

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★[Goblin Slayer]

Ingredients: 3 F rank or higher goblin magic stones, 50 F rank or lower goblin magic stones, 30 F rank or higher goblin teeth, 3 F rank or higher goblin hearts. 50 F rank or lower goblin horns and hearts.

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What an annoying set of ingredients. But, there's two other goblins in this cave on the same level as the Goblin Leader and a seemingly never-ending number of normal ones.

I'm quite interested in this unthinkably different magic. Although, I have to be as inconspicuous as possible when collecting the ingredients, so it'll take a long time. However, since I rescued Carla there weren't any other pressing issues left. Most of all, I have a clear reason to view it as a non-issue.

Basically, I have plenty of time to spare. So let's jump into creating this magic.

I exited the room and completely destroyed all the restraints on the imprisoned women with [Whirlwind] and teleported them in front of the village chief's house.

For what it's worth I did give one of the women a letter saying that I saved Carla so there was no need to worry. Now I don't have to worry about returning and can put my all into an adventure to sate my curiosity.

After extracting materials from the Goblin Leader's corpse, I searched for goblins with Analyze Environment before drawing close and killing them, gathering materials without a hitch.

Naturally, I wasn't so full of compassion as to have pity on these beasts that attack humans, so I didn't hesitate to kill them at all and culled every last one the very moment I encountered them.

There was a Goblin Mage inside that wielded magic, but I offed his head while he was chanting a long spell.

And so, I was able to gather a lot of goblin materials relatively quickly.

Once I found two F rank or above goblins, I was done.

And those two F rank or above goblins were just inside the next room.

The two lookout goblins in front of the room let out a yelp once they saw me and pointed their weapons at me, but I severed their heads with [Wind Cutter].

I already had plenty of materials, but I'll dismantle them and throw the extra into my item box for later.

Now the path to my new magic was opening up. In anticipation, I felt a childish fit wash over me. I'll kill them and gather the last materials.

I passed through a cloth curtain to enter the room, where I was met with two oni reclining on stone chairs.

Next to the two oni were a beautiful woman with long ears and a beautiful boy, both with wings sprouting out of their backs and chokers fastened on their necks.

No matter how you looked at it, they weren't human.

"A human brat this time. Can't you do something about your bad taste, Gobura?" a small macho oni complained to the other oni who had a strange bulge coming from her stomach.

"Gobuzu, can you stop meddling in our love? Still, that's a really cute face. Those idiots did have good taste after all." Gobura said as she leered all over my body. "Yess, I've decided! This child minee."

"Sorry for butting in your conversation, but I have a question and a request, if that's all right."

"What is a human(livestock) doing, opening his mouth!?" the macho oni yelled indignantly at my question as a fat vein popped on his forehead.

"Just answer me," I said, ignoring the oni. "Why are you guys so fluent in the human language? Aren't you two goblins?"

The Goblin Leader from before definitely fell into the monster category, but if you ignored the horns and fangs, these two were roughly similar to humans.

"Kuhuhu, this kid is lumping us together with those idiots," Gobura said.

"How unpleasant. We are High Goblins, completely different from those primal goblins!" Gobuzu added.

Basically there's different classes even among monsters. I'm interested in studying them for future experiments, but it'd be way too crude to use them as lab rats.

"I understand. Then, onto my request," I said.

"Hmm, what could it beee," Gobura teased. "Although I won't be gentle. I looove seeing humans(livestock) writhe in agony after all."

"No, it's nothing hard at all–it's actually quite a simple request."

I could barely endure it, but I forcefully suppressed my intellectual curiosity and broke into a grin. They immediately stood up like clockwork and created some distance between us.

"C-careful, Gobura! This guy's weird!!" Gobuzo warned.

"Yes, I know."

The small macho oni, Gobuzu, grabbed a pike, and the oni with a large belly, Gobura, grabbed a large pike. They both then stood on guard.

"Give me your teeth, magic stones, and heart," I demanded as I raised my palms up.

At my request, their faces began to spasm, and they yelled a war cry before charging at me.

I used [Whirlwind] to sever all their limbs.

"M-my legsss!! My arms!" they screamed.

Without heeding their screams at all, I leisurely approached Gobura.

"D-don't come any closer!"

"I decline."

I raised my right hand and–.

"Stooopp, you monsteerrr!!" they screamed.

began dismantling them.

–Technical Difficulties. Please Stand By.

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......

.........

In the end, I safely dismantled Gobuzu after dismantling Gobura. I think Gobuzu was trying to beg for his life, but I really couldn't care less so I ignored his cries and continued.

I obtained more materials and I was quite pleased with myself, but that didn't mean my problems were over.

"Please, let me goo..." the blonde woman with butterfly wings begged.

Her hands were folded in prayer and she was shaking, and soon after the boy with transparent wings chimed in as well.

"I'll do anything you say, just spare my life! Please! Please!" he begged while rubbing his forehead on the ground.

"Holy Spirit King-sama, I won't lie anymore; I'll pray every day. So please save me!!" the blonde woman with red wings wholeheartedly prayed to the heavens.

"You know, I came here to save—"

They cut me off. "Please have mercy!!"

They're not listening at all.

I wasn't someone who killed indiscriminately. I was quite respectful towards intelligent humans and any similar intelligent life-forms.

I just wasn't so overflowing in mercifulness as to forgive hedonic incompetents who wouldn't hesitate to commit a crime.

At last, they burst into tears and began wailing, so I forcefully teleported them in front of Tote's village chief's house because they were annoying.