How Strong Are We, Really?

Daro analyzed our combat strength with a calm, matter-of-fact tone. "At our level, we could probably clear two or three goblin nests without much trouble."

I completely agreed. The goblins' forces were nothing special. There were four scout teams guarding the Goblin Nest. Inside the nest itself, you'd mainly find unarmed goblins, their young, and a goblin shaman acting as the leader. Aside ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠from the cramped quarters making fights awkward, everything was in our favor. The enemy numbers would increase, but their quality would drop sharply. If things went according to plan, completing the mission would just be a matter of time.

"From here on, we'll need to find the path," I said.

We decided to circle the base of the mountain, gathering clues that might lead us to our destination.

"This way."

Jian's combat aura seemed to have done the trick. Somi moved with far more energy than before. I wasn't sure if it was a genuine healing effect or if the muscle pain had simply been overwritten by even worse muscle pain. Either way, once the Dungeon Seeker took the lead, our pace picked up noticeably. Somi had no trouble spotting the traces left behind by the goblin scouts.

"This looks like their patrol route..."

Somi tilted her head, looking a bit lost. Finding the clues was good, but she clearly had no idea how to actually use them.

"Perfect. Let's set up camp nearby," I suggested.

Somi's eyes widened in disbelief. "Are you out ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠of your mind?"

"We just fought like hell earlier. We should rest and recover our stamina first."

"I know that! But camping right on a scout patrol path..."

Daro cut in. "We'll do as Mister Hajun says."

"What?" Somi looked utterly betrayed.

It seemed Daro had already caught on to my real intentions behind suggesting we camp here.

"We don't actually know where the goblin nest is, after all."

"Well, that's..." Somi trailed off.

Jian tilted her head in confusion. "Isn't that what we're supposed to find?"

"And how exactly do you plan on finding it?"

"Um... by searching really hard?"

There are things that hard work can solve, and things it can't. If you're not smart, your body ends up paying the price.

"First, we set up camp nearby. We'll wait for a goblin scout team to pass by, then ambush them when the opportunity arises."

"...And then?"

"We'll capture one alive. That'll be the end of it."

"..."

Dungeon Seekers are the type who feel unsatisfied unless they're running around on their own two feet. Somi's way of thinking was classic for her class—she believed she had to find everything herself. But obviously, we didn't need to personally search for their nest. All we had to do was catch ourselves a guide.

"We'll kill all but one. Then we'll pretend it was a mistake and let that one go."

A goblin that barely escaped with its life would scramble straight back to its nest in a panic. It wouldn't even realize that the hunters who had just destroyed its patrol were following right behind.

Jian shook her head after hearing my plan. "That's pretty cruel."

"We're here to kill them anyway, aren't we?"

"Well, yes, but still..."

Daro gave me a small smile. Getting smiled at by another guy didn't make me happy at all.

"Then let's find a good spot to set up camp."

We split up to scout potential camping locations. Before long, we discovered a decent clearing and decided to make it our base for the night.

"Will the scouts really pass through here again?" Jian asked while helping set up the simple tents.

"They will."

"Why?"

It was hard to explain. In Dungeon Overseer terms, I could say it was because the encounter rate was fixed. Thanks to that fixed encounter probability, any party heading out to find the goblin nest was guaranteed to run into a scout team. Gather clues, find the path to the dungeon. Exploration and discovery. And combat. That was what roguelikes were all about.

Once the campsite was ready, Daro sat down beside me and lit his pipe. He exhaled a deep cloud of smoke and spoke as if sighing.

"You have good instincts, Mister Hajun."

He seemed genuinely pleased that I'd offered an opinion.

"It's nothing special."

"The world is full of people who can't even come up with something that simple."

I could sense the exhaustion in Daro's laugh. Just how many hopeless parties had this guy led before now? It made sense, though. Among explorers, truly smart ones were few and far between. According to the system, only Necromancers, Dungeon Seekers, and Alchemists received the 'Highly Educated' trait by default. The other classes could randomly acquire the 'Learner' trait, which was required to read and write. In other words, anyone without even that trait was illiterate.

Daro's eyes seemed to say, 'As expected from an educated man...'

"By the way," Jian said, walking over to us. "What if the scouts spot us first?"

She was worried about getting ambushed. She didn't know that Dungeon Seekers had the 'Indomitable Pathfinder' trait.

"We have a Dungeon Seeker with us," I said, pointing at Somi.

Somi, who had been reading a book, looked up with wide eyes. Hmm. From a distance, she really did look like a cat wearing glasses.

"As long as we have the Seer Lantern, there's no chance of getting ambushed."

Jian finally nodded, all her questions apparently resolved. "I see."

She hummed to herself in understanding. She was incredibly skilled in battle, but her everyday behavior was pure airhead.

Just to be sure, I asked, "Jian, is this your first time fighting goblins?"

She shook her head. "This is my second time."

Only her second time. She really was a complete beginner.

We rested comfortably until sunset, sitting around the campfire and sharing the food we'd brought. The first day of the goblin hunt slowly came to an end.

"Shh."

We'd been waiting so long we were starting to get tired of it. Somi pointed into the darkness, warning the rest of the party.

"They're here. It's a goblin scout team."

Our plan of camping on a likely patrol route and waiting had worked perfectly. The goblin scouts emerged from the underbrush.

Once we took them down, we'd be able to extract the location of the goblin nest.

"Let's get ready," Daro said, drawing his arming sword.

The blade, which he'd pre-coated with ash, didn't reflect any moonlight even on this clear night.

"They're getting closer. But their direction seems a little off?"

"Which way?"

"West... over there. If we head down that path, we'll meet them."

Somi read the light from her Seer Lantern to gauge the enemies' position. Like the sword Sting from The Lord of the Rings, the Seer Lantern glowed blue when enemies approached. Dungeon Seekers could determine an enemy's location from the intensity and direction of that light. This was exactly why Dungeon Seekers were considered overpowered.

"Right there!"

We hid in the bushes Somi had pointed out. Soon after, the goblin scout team emerged from the darkness.

"Haaah!"

In any fight, the first strike usually wins. Jian, who had been waiting in ambush, charged the goblins with a full-body assault.

"Kieek!"

A Mystic's breakthrough power was top-tier in Dungeon Overseer. The goblins' formation crumbled like a sandcastle.

"Mister Hajun!"

"I'll handle myself!"

While Jian was out in front fighting aggressively, Daro stabbed one of the goblins through with his arming sword. As the panicked goblins scattered in every direction, Somi came scrambling over and stuck close to my back.

"Kyaaak! Kyaaaak!"

She was insanely loud. Her whip was somewhat helpful, but Somi herself was not. Every time a goblin charged at her, she shrieked at the top of her lungs. I swung my saw blade at the goblin that was about to club her.

"Krrk!"

With a heavy whooshing sound, the saw blade tore off the goblin's wrist. It wasn't a clean cut—it was ripped away. Blood gushed from the jagged stump like it had been bitten off by an animal's fangs.

"Would you shut up already!"

"Kyaaak! Goblins! There! There are more coming!"

I dodged an incoming goblin's attack and thrust my saw blade forward. With a sickening sensation, it pierced straight through the goblin's stomach. The creature convulsed, its limbs shaking violently. I planted my foot on its shoulder, yanked hard, and a rush of hot steam poured out along with its filthy guts.

Goblin blood was disgusting.

"Kiaaaa!"

Maybe they felt some sense of duty to protect the nest, but these goblins had much stronger morale than the ones we'd fought during the day. As a result, fewer of them tried to run away.

"Gurgh!"

Brave or not, they were still just goblins. When Jian's fist slammed into one’s head like a hammer, there was a sickening crack and its brains splattered out. One punch had shattered its skull and turned its brain into something resembling a milkshake. As expected of a Mystic—their offensive power was incredible.

From a distance, Jian's movements looked a bit awkward. Looking closer, I saw she was limping slightly on her left leg. It seemed a sharp stone knife had slashed her thigh.

"Somi!"

I gestured toward Jian. Seeing the wound, Somi grabbed her Seer Lantern and rushed over. The lantern's light turned red, and Jian's injury vanished as if it had never been there.

"Thank you!"

"Ugh..."

Jian spoke with genuine cheer, but Somi looked completely out of it. She'd run over to heal, but the area behind Jian was pure hell.

"Haaap!"

There was no way Somi could keep up with a Mystic's breakthrough power. Blood and brain matter flew everywhere, along with shattered goblin teeth that scattered like broken shards. Jian was slaughtering the goblins with her Psychic Gloves like a woman possessed. Somi returned to my back with a miserable expression.

"This is really..."

But what could she do? The ground was littered with mangled goblin corpses. Poor Somi.

"Kiik! Kieek!"

The tide had clearly turned in the explorers' favor. The goblins began screaming desperately as they fled. Nest or no nest, they realized they couldn't win against these explorers who were practically goblin butchers. It was smarter to give up.

The goblins disappeared into the darkness, but they couldn't escape the light of the Seer Lantern. Even in the shadows, their footprints glowed brightly as if painted with fluorescent paint.

"Let's chase them down!"

It took longer than during the day, but this battle also ended in our complete one-sided massacre. Just as planned, we captured one goblin alive. We'd release it at dawn and follow it back to the nest.

While gathering the corpses for inspection, I discovered a strange symbol.

"Huh?"

What the hell was this? It looked like a necklace made of bone, but I couldn't figure out what it symbolized. The shape resembled the letter W... Was this some kind of goblin religion?

"What is this?"

In times like these, it was better to ask the Dungeon Seeker rather than rely on my fake scholarly credentials. I showed the necklace to Somi, who had finally calmed her churning stomach. Her expression immediately brightened.

"Where did you find this?"

"It was around one's neck."

Somi stared at it so intensely it looked like she might shoot lasers from her eyes.

"This is a shaman's mark."

The rest of the party gathered around Somi.

"See here? They're holding hands."

Now that she mentioned it, I could see it. So it wasn't a W—it was two hands clasped together?

"What does it mean?"

"Goblin symbols are simple. They're not much different from human ones. A sword means force, the sun means dignity, bones mean authority. That sort of thing. Clasped hands represent harmony."

"Harmony?"

A necklace dropped by a goblin scout team. If it were some holy symbol, I could understand, but harmony? What was that about?

"Something like an alliance?"

There hadn't been any event like this in Dungeon Overseer.

"Probably. Shamans make these marks. It looks like there was some kind of treaty between two goblin tribes. That's why the scouts carry them as proof."

"It's not something we need to worry about," Daro concluded cleanly.

I felt the same. The goblins in Dungeon Overseer were simple, aggressive, violence-loving monsters. The setting was that they followed a single leader and lived in small caves they called nests. It ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠was the perfect enemy type for beginners to encounter and fight. One boss, a dungeon of appropriate size. They couldn't be more roguelike-friendly. Still, they were just goblins. What could they possibly accomplish by forming an alliance?

"Shouldn't we still be careful?" Jian asked worriedly, but Daro didn't seem concerned at all.

"We're the ones choosing to fight. The goblins are simply in the position of trying to stop us."

"That's true, but..."

He was a hundred percent right. No matter if fifty or a hundred goblins banded together, we were still the ones marching in. There was no way we'd lose in a fight against a scout team. And if things got really bad, we could always abandon the mission and retreat. Our funds were running low, but it was still better than dying. I wasn't crazy enough to risk my life over a goblin nest.

"Then I'll take this," Somi said shamelessly, claiming the necklace I'd found as hers.

"Go ahead."

Daro didn't look like he was going to stop her. Since I'd more or less expected this, I wasn't particularly angry. I'd seen this kind of Dungeon Seeker event plenty of times. Even if we took it back to the city to sell, it would probably only be worth the price of lunch. It was a shame, but causing a fuss to get it back wouldn't even let me break even. Better to cleanly give up on what I couldn't have. Somi was already grinning ear to ear just from getting that one item.

"Let's rest for tonight. We'll move out at dawn tomorrow."

With our work done, we went straight to bed.

The next day, just before sunrise. After finishing breakfast, we untied the goblin we'd kept captive through the night.

"Somi, I'll leave the tracking to you."

"Don't worry!"

The goblin nest wasn't far away.