Ruler Vol 4 Chapter 22
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Author: Anit666
Editor: Weasalopes
【Sam’s POV】
And there it was, the first monster that I encountered in this world. It was a mere goblin though. Pretty weak for me, but I guess beggars can’t be choosers.
As depicted in games and anime, the goblin was short, around 3 feet tall. Its body was green, the back was hunched. It had long pointy ears and nose and yellow reptilian eyes. Although its limbs were thin and bony, it had a round protruding belly.
It wore just a cloth made from animal hide to hide its nether regions and a necklace made by passing a string through small bones. The goblin was sitting on a rock with a spear in its hands which it might have stolen from somewhere. Most probably, it was a guard or a lookout to alert its friends(?) in case of intruders.
“Goblobgob………….”
It muttered something in its hoarse nasty voice and yawned. It hadn’t noticed us, yet, probably because the horrible stench of rotten meat coming from the cave behind it had clogged its nose.
I decided to use ‘Analyse’ on it.
｢Goblin｣
HP: 152
MP: 19
STR: 46
DEF: 39
AGI: 70
Whoa, the goblin was weak, awfully weak. Like, it’s not even funny. They were living up to their name as the weakest monsters. The book I read said that even teenagers could kill a goblin with some effort.
But that’s why the goblins’ real strength lay in their numbers. This nest had at least 20 goblins, which, depending on how those numbers were used, would be enough overwhelm a normal adventurer. Which makes the disappearance of the friends’ of Garn even more baffling.
Well, we’ll know the answer to that soon enough.
After seeing the goblin for himself (and perhaps showing it to us), Garn signalled to Irene to take it down. She nodded and nocked an arrow into the bow without making any sound. The moment the goblin turned its gaze away to somewhere else, Irene peeked from the boulder, aimed at the goblin’s head, and fired the arrow. It swiftly travelled through the air with a whoosh which was heard by the goblin. But before it could move, the arrow was already firmly lodged in its head, thus ending its life instantly.
This swift process ensured that the goblin couldn’t call for its comrades. After some waiting for some time to check whether there was another goblin or not, we stepped out from the boulder. Garn lopped off its nose which served as proof that we had killed the goblin and put it inside his bag.
We proceeded to the cave the goblin was guarding, moving slowly and silently to make sure that no goblin could notice us. As we moved further in, the stench of rotten meat continued to grow stronger and stronger. Even the magician behind me, Aulia, winced in displeasure.
After some time, in front of us came an exit which most probably led us into a room or hall. Irene took the lead just like before and peered inside while hiding behind the wall and we remained behind. She came back after some time and whispered.
“5 goblins. But they recently ate, so they have put their guard down. An ambush would be enough to take care of them.”
“Fumu.” The leader pondered. “In that case, we’ll ambush and kill them. You can take out three of them at once, right?”
Irene nodded.
“Then I and Samael will take out the remaining two. Aulia, you will cast a spell to drown out their cries; we cannot risk being discovered right now. Mary will remain on standby in case someone gets hurt.”
Since there was nothing wrong with his plan, we all complied. And so began the operation ‘Eliminate-those-little-shits’.
“Gobglob gobob glob.”
“Gaga logbo gob.”
The goblins were talking among themselves.
As agreed earlier, Aulia started the casting of a magic spell which would drown out their voices. She started saying some incomprehensible words- probably the chant for the spell- and the stone at the end of her staff started glowing.
Her chanting stopped upon the completion of the spell. In conjunction to that, the voices coming from the goblin stopped. Of course, they noticed this immediately and realised that there were enemies, but they were already too late.
3 arrows came at them from behind and hit 3 of them straight in their head, thus ending their miserable lives. As the remaining 2 were stupefied by this, we jumped in with our swords.
The goblins took out their makeshift weapons in order to defend themselves. The one in front of me was wielding a hatchet made by tying a stone to a piece of wood. Swinging it around, he leapt at me in order to kill me.
There was not a semblance of technique in his movements, nor did it seem to have any strategy to fight me. With spit leaking out from his mouth, he didn’t seem to be fighting to avenge his fallen brethren. He just wanted to kill me and my comrades, and he probably believed that it really could do that.
In other words, the goblin was a fucking idiot.
It swung its hatchet downwards which I easily dodged. Before it could move again, I snatched the hatchet from its hand- its hold on it wasn’t too strong to begin with- and hit it straight in the face with it. That was enough for its head to burst and end its life. It didn’t even get a chance to let out its death throes.
Thankfully, none of its blood got on my clothes.
I looked to my side, and Garn had killed his target too.
“………………………”
Ah, right. We are currently in a zone which blocks off all sound.
Aulia, after seeing that all the goblins were dead, cancelled the magic spell, and we could finally hear again. After cutting the noses of the goblins and stuffing them into his bag, Garn approached me and patted my shoulder.
“Hey, you’re not too shabby for a rookie!”
“Yeah! He killed the goblin with its own weapon!”
Irene supported him.
“It was just a mere goblin after all. Of course I would be able to effortlessly kill it.”
By the way, the reason I used the goblin’s own hatchet to kill it was that I was too lazy to take out my own sword. On the other hand, Aulia was just a tiny bit out of breath. Was it because she had used her ‘MP’ to cast the earlier magic spell?
‘Analyse’.
NAME: Aulia Berzerk
RACE: Human
LVL: 47
Whoa, she’s at a really high level. How many monsters did she kill to get to that? What about the others?
NAME: Garn
RACE: Human
LVL: 38
NAME: Irene Liavi
RACE: Elf
LVL: 37
Aulia is the strongest among them? Wow. Gotta make sure to not enrage her, lest she goes ‘Pumped Up Kicks’ on my ass.
“Shall we move ahead?”
Aside from the one we entered from, there was only one other path connected to this room. That would probably lead to our destination. After Irene made sure that there were no hidden paths in this room-
“Yeah.”
Garn took the lead again and we entered that path using our general formation. This time, we were even more careful as we were deep into the goblin’s territory.
Even if we don’t put myself and Phiria into the equation, the party ‘Wanderers’ is probably strong enough to take care of 20 or so goblins. But that applies to a normal situation. Right now, we’re in a narrow cave where even swinging a sword is difficult. It would become even more troublesome if the goblins somehow caught us in a pincer attack.
While I was thinking that, we came upon an unexpected problem.
“There are two paths….”
From here on the path split into a left and right. This was a difficult situation; if we chose the wrong path the goblins could attack us from behind, or worse, from both sides. And so, the expert stepped forward.
Irene stood in the middle of the paths. As she was scrutinizing them, her gaze fell upon something on the ground. She scraped it with her finger and smelled it. She then travelled into the path where she had found that thing. She came back some time later, perhaps having arrived at a conclusion.
“It’s this way.”
She pointed in the direction opposite to the path she had just gone into. Without even doubting her or asking why she made that decision, Garn and Aulia started walking in that direction, and so did we.
The thing she had scraped from the ground was actually a fresh bat dropping. Since my vision was accustomed to the dark, I could make out similar droppings on the other path. She had probably used that to decide on the path we were on.
Just like before, another exit came which would probably lead us into another room. Irene took the lead and went ahead to scout, but the various sounds coming from inside pretty much told us what was inside.
“It’s the main nest.” Irene came back and declared. “There are 23 goblins there. And so are Alia and Depo. I couldn’t see the rest.”
“I see.” Garn muttered. “Then we’ll attack and wipe them out. Irene, you’ll use your bow to attack them from the rear and prevent them from using hostages. Aulia will support us using her magic, and Mary will be on standby with her healing magic ready. Samael.” He turned to me. “We’ll jump into the fray and directly kill those fuckers.”
Isn’t he being too hasty? For the time being, I nodded.
“Let’s go.”
And so, we stepped inside. Irene nocked 3 arrows in her bow and initiated the onslaught while we jumped between them to end their lives; everything was going according to the plan we had agreed upon.
Until now, that is.
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