Translator: RaidenTL

Chapter 8: The Second Evolution

It had never been confirmed whether monsters could have Unique Abilities, but when I thought back to the Ogre that had launched fire-aspected attacks or the goblins that had unleashed sword energy, it seemed highly likely that monsters could manifest them as well.

No, it was almost a certainty. The method of awakening a Unique Ability varied from person to person. The most convincing theory was that the ability manifested in the form its user desired most.

Considering the ability I had gained in the past, ‘HP Increase,’ that theory seemed more or less correct. I hadn't yet decided exactly how I wanted to grow, so for now, it was just something to think about.

My path of development would shift slightly depending on which Unique Ability I received. In that sense, I remembered that the HP Increase I’d gotten in my past life had synergized quite well with being a ‘Top-Tier Swordsman.’ For now, I decided I needed to give the matter of a Unique Ability some more thought.

With these thoughts running through my mind, the Blood Dagger Clan and I began moving back to our original location.

“H-help me! P-please, help me! I’m… on your side… I’m on your side!”

The first person to come into view was, of course, Jung Hayeon. Thanks to Mev having clearly explained the situation to Goff, Jung Hayeon was still unharmed. ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠The only problem was that the surrounding goblins were amusing themselves by circling her and constantly throwing small stones at her.

“Kireuk… Kireuk! Kireuk!!”

Below them, other goblins were feasting on the corpses of the fallen, a sight that must have been utterly terrifying from Jung Hayeon’s perspective.

“S-sob… sob…”

Seeing that she had wet herself in fear, the goblins grew even more excited and rowdy. Among the ones below, there were even a few with the peculiar tastes Mev had mentioned before; they had taken out their monstrosities and were panting heavily, which seemed to have doubled her terror.

I asked Mev and the other goblins to bring Jung Hayeon over to me.

“Mev. Bring that woman over here.”

“Kireuk…”

She looked at Jung Hayeon with extreme caution, a look unbecoming of the greatest beauty among goblins. But an order was an order. In the end, Mev slowly walked over and began to retrieve her. As Mev, the goblin beauty, cleared a path, the goblins who had been tormenting Jung Hayeon started to make way.

My goblin subordinates lifted Jung Hayeon, flag and all, and carried her over. As they began to untie her, she started to weep, overwhelmed by sorrow and hardship. I spoke to the crying woman.

“Sob… sob…”

“Do not cry.”

At my single command, Jung Hayeon’s tears stopped abruptly. She looked quite startled to see me. It was understandable, given how my entire appearance had changed. But she seemed to have the sense not to say anything about it.

After entrusting Jung Hayeon to the clan’s goblins, I slowly made my way over to where the other goblins were. As expected, Goff had also completed his evolution from this battle, choosing to become a ‘Hobgoblin Warrior.’ I had been somewhat worried he might get greedy and choose Intermediate Goblin Warrior, but it seemed he had some sense after all.

Seeing his massive frame, which was quite large even for a Hobgoblin, I wondered if he simply had a preference for being big. Monsters, after all, tend to be a bit simple-minded.

When I entered, Goff and his goblins expressed their gratitude to me.

“Thank you. I thank Blood Dagger for giving me the chance to fight.”

“Don’t mention it. It’s nothing to be thankful for. Are we not all Green Skins?”

I had already gotten a rough grasp of his personality. He seemed to be fond of things like valor and passionate camaraderie. My casually spoken words must have been the right answer, because the look in Goff’s eyes began to change slightly.

My best guess was that he was probably thinking something like:

‘A trustworthy guy, a good fellow, a friend.’

I wasn't being nice to Goff for no reason. He had a certain degree of ambition and was smarter than he looked. His combat sense was beyond imagination. Though he wasn't one of my subordinates, if he were allowed to grow sufficiently, he was the kind of talent—no, it would be better to call him a prodigy—who would likely become a disaster for the humans.

Eventually, Goff slowly placed a hand over his chest. I hadn't known it before, but that gesture seemed to signify respect, or perhaps acknowledgment.

“I will surely repay you. Kireuk.”

Seeing that, I couldn't help but smile. He had given his word, so he would undoubtedly keep it. As I thought, monsters were more human than humans.

A little more time passed. Unfortunately, the second quest was the last of the Tutorial Quests. After this, the System wouldn't provide clear objectives like before.

But I wasn't too concerned. To be precise, the Tutorial Quests were literally just that: a way to present objectives. There was no level-up system, but it was a way of telling us that we needed to accumulate experience to advance to the next stage.

Experience was granted for conquering dungeons, for combat, and even for production-related work. It wasn't like a game where ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠you could see or hear the experience points accumulating, but you could feel it.

Because of this, it was only natural that we had to fight a lot during the Tutorial. Having formed a goblin settlement of this size, we could probably survive just by defending it for the remaining time, but there was certainly no time to rest. The quests were over, but the battles would continue. I had to get stronger as quickly as possible.

And for that, I used Jung Hayeon. The method was similar to before. There was nothing more effective for gathering the humans scattered across this vast forest than the scream of a beautiful woman. Of course, sometimes the wrong goblins would be drawn in, but in those cases, we could either resolve it through dialogue or quiet them down by promising them humans in advance.

Even though I had wandered this forest for 100 days in the past, there was no way I could have explored this entire vast area. I had to rely on memory to find the humans’ ‘points,’ so Jung Hayeon’s role was larger than one might think.

Perhaps due to guilt, she was very passive at first, but recently, her acting skills had gotten remarkably good. When a battle became intense, she seemed to hope that the humans might defeat our goblins, but the Goff Clan and the Blood Dagger Clan, having gained proficiency through continuous combat, were ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠truly strong. I was certain that even the camp I had survived with in the past would have been wiped out in an instant, which made me realize just how much stronger we had become.

As usual, I decided to hide in the bushes and watch Jung Hayeon.

“Help me!!! Help me!”

“Please… save me!”

Her acting was truly superb. But it wasn't just her acting that had started to change; she was beginning to figure out what she needed to do to survive. When I first saw her after a battle, even I couldn't help but be surprised.

If there were humans nearby, their reaction to hearing Jung Hayeon’s cries would be one of two things. First, groups confident in their party’s strength would usually come to the rescue. The idiots who died at the very beginning fell into this category. The second type would cautiously observe the situation.

Of course, the moment they heard Jung Hayeon’s voice and headed in this direction, they had already fallen into the trap. It made no difference. Even if they sensed something was wrong ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠and tried to flee, the result was the same. Even if they didn't come in deep, the surrounding goblins would throw daggers to harass them as much as possible.

This time, however, it didn't seem necessary to go that far. The reason was that this group was the confident type.

There were quite a few of them, and I could see several who had already undergone a class change, judging by their equipment.

“H-help me. Please… t-this thing… th-those green monsters…”

As Jung Hayeon continued to speak, a large, pig-like man who had changed into a warrior class began to look her up and down.

“Looks like my lucky day…”

Idiots always react like that. Living with the knowledge that their lives could be snuffed out at any moment made them more faithful to their instincts. Even if they were lucky enough to survive the Tutorial, a hundred out of a hundred of them would die upon entering the continent.

Then again, it would be strange not to have that reaction upon seeing Jung Hayeon. We were no longer using a foolish setup like tying her to a flag as we did in the first luring operation. The concept was now ‘a beautiful woman who escaped from a goblin settlement.’ She was wearing next to nothing and pleading for help in a rather sensual pose, so simple-minded fools were bound to fall for it.

And these guys were the simple-minded type. The large pig’s mouth soon began to open.

“Hey, bring that woman over here.”

“Yes, sir!”

He was cautious enough to use his subordinates to rescue her. But from somewhere, two arrows flew in an instant and struck them down.

“Arrrggghhh!!!”

“Gaaahhhhhk!!!!!”

‘Mev.’

I glanced at Mev, who was lowering her bow beside me. Thanks to the many battles we’d fought, she had completed the quest and chosen to become a Hobgoblin Archer, just like me. One arrow had pierced a man’s forehead, and the other had pierced another’s neck. The one hit in the neck was still alive, clutching at his throat and making choking sounds.

Two shots to vital spots. Excellent, as expected. Her performance had been particularly outstanding recently, to the point where she would soon be able to aim for the next evolution alongside me.

“Good job.”

“Mhm! Kireuk!”

And then…

“Let’s go!!! Valiant Goff Clan!! This is war! War!!!”

Goff, our settlement’s vanguard captain, began to charge the enemy.

“F… fuck… these dog-like bastards… that fucking bitch!”

Humans caught in a trap always react the same way. The pig with the sword and shield started screaming, and the other humans around him clumsily raised their shields to face the Goff Clan. But they were no match. Goff, who had already grown so strong it was hard to see him as a mere Hobgoblin, slammed into them like a tank.

Watching the scene, I turned my head and immediately headed for my position.

With the Goff Clan handling the front line, it was much easier for us to penetrate their formation. It was obvious to everyone that the one holding a staff, the ‘Magician,’ was the number one target. But we didn't charge in recklessly. Just keeping the magician in check with daggers was enough to buy time against their casting.

“The Chieftain is coming!! The Chieftain is coming!! Make way! Kireuk!!”

“Kireuk!!! Kireuk!!!!!”

As I moved with my sword in hand, my goblins shouted from all over. They clashed with the humans, struggling desperately to open a path for me to the magician.

I quickly moved through the path my subordinates had opened. The opponent saw me rushing toward her and froze, unable to move.

Looking at her face, she was a young woman who appeared to be a university student. She must have somehow completed the first quest by cozying up to the pig whose head was now being crushed by Goff, but she was clumsy. A magician who can't even make a sound in a crisis is useless to a party. It naturally reminded me of the old magician from my past, who had done nothing when Shin Duk-ho attacked us and died with an arrow in his forehead.

It would have been more beneficial for their survival to raise someone else rather than a woman like this. Thinking how incredibly foolish they were, I glanced over at Jung Hayeon.

It was the same scene as before. She must have gotten up at some point, because she came into view, repeatedly stabbing the human whose neck had been pierced by Mev’s arrow.

“I’m sorry! I’m sorry!! I’m sorry!!! I… I’m on your side, right?!”

Seeing that, I grinned and swung my sword at the magician.

With a sickening slice, the woman’s head and neck were instantly separated.

“The Chieftain got the magician!!” “The Blood Dagger Clan got the magician!!!!”

“Aaaarrrrggghhhh!!!” Seeing this, the remaining humans tried to flee, but with goblins everywhere, there was no escape.

“The battle is over.”