The Goblin Slaughterer
'I should finish clearing out the 4th-floor Open-Pit Mine by today.' I didn't have much time. Once the night passed, the goblins would realize what had happened in the Dark Forest and start preparing—whether by setting up defenses or doing something else. Their vigilance and defensive posture would only increase, and since goblins were monsters with an exceptionally high reproduction rate, I had to aim for total extermination within a short period, even if it meant pushing myself.
Although the hunting felt like a repetitive chore, the fact that a single successful attack was enough to kill a goblin kept the fatigue manageable. I diligently hunted the goblins while only picking up the useful loot. Whenever more than ten goblins swarmed me, I suppressed them with a picturesque, continuous barrage of attacks. I even infused mana into my boots to drastically increase my movement speed, so the goblins would die without even knowing what had struck them!
"This is taking too long." Since this was a stealth mission where I couldn't afford to reveal my location, I couldn't round up the goblins to hunt them in groups, which made the travel time between kills even longer. I had no choice but to start a few fires to draw their attention. I cut some grass to extract the core and gathered dry branches. I didn't need the fire to spread too far, so I dug up the ground around where I intended to ignite it and poured plenty of water to dampen the soil. As soon as I lit the dry grass, the fire spread in an instant and began to consume the dry firewood. When I added a bit of wet grass on top, an immense amount of smoke billowed out. I immediately left the spot and headed toward the mine, and sure enough, goblins were swarming from the mine and its surroundings.
-Kereuk -Ke-ek
'There are a lot of them here, too.'
Given the numbers, I definitely wouldn't have had enough time until morning if I had to deal with them while they were scattered. Many of the goblins were heading toward the smoke billowing from the fire. I moved stealthily in the opposite direction of that wave. When I arrived near the Open-Pit Mine, there were few goblins left, as most had flocked toward the fire. A quick scan revealed not a single human, only a small number of goblins digging at the walls with pickaxes. I had heard that the residents were kidnapped, but since time had passed and goblins treated humans as food, they hadn't survived.
"Tsk." Although I had expected it, I felt a bitter sting knowing there were no survivors among the residents, and I proceeded to finish off the remaining goblins in the mine. "Anyway, it'll only be over once I kill every last one of them." Now that I had confirmed there were no hostages, there was no longer a need to move quietly. My hunger and fatigue were non-existent, thanks to the beef jerky and stamina recovery potions I’d consumed.
I went around setting fires wherever I had piled up dry grass and firewood, causing chaos, and killed every goblin I laid eyes on. The goblins were in a state of extreme confusion due to the smell of burning grass and trees rising from all directions! Of course, with the ambient temperature rising while I was wearing armor, my stamina consumption increased significantly, but it was bearable. If it got too tough, I could just drink the plenty of stamina recovery potions I had left. Potions were excellent in many ways, but if you drank too many, you'd get waterlogged and couldn't drink any more. Since I was moving around a lot and sweating profusely from the fire and intense physical exertion, drinking plenty was fine. It was a great potion with no real side effects.
"I should learn how to make potions later." Baroness Helene de Menil was an excellent mage, an artifact crafter, and an alchemist. If I maintained a good relationship with her while solving requests like this, wouldn't I be able to learn a ton of useful crafting recipes in return? In particular, I could greatly advance my alchemy, which I hadn't tried much, and my lacking artifact crafting skills.
Perhaps because it was near their dwelling, the goblins kept bringing water in leather pouches and wooden barrels to put out the fires, and I diligently cut them down. Every once in a while, there were warrior or knight-class variants. The variant goblins dropped decent loot, which was satisfying.
Through intense and relentless combat, your Strength stat has increased.
You have crushed many opponents in a short period. Your Strength stat has increased.
"Let's have a proper sword dance... no, a club dance today." I charged at the goblins that were gathering, drawn by the scent of blood as the flames began to die down.
Even while Lee Jaeil was slaughtering goblins on the 4th floor, the Gallery was in an uproar over the standard and high-grade steel swords he had uploaded earlier.
Foreigners were still expressing their dissatisfaction because he only sold to Koreans, excluding them.
There was a group moving much busier than the general public, who were living their lives diligently while hoping for a bright future: the Climbing Bureau.
"What happened with that Normal difficulty middle-floor climber who snuck in from China?"
"Too many are coming over from China, so climbers from the Bureau are handling them in the West Sea."
"The US is pressuring us, asking if we really don't know the identity of the All-Purpose Crafter."
"Tell them we don't know."
"They're also making a fuss about lifting the item sales restrictions."
"That's not my... ha... tell them it's the will of the All-Purpose Crafter, so there's nothing we can do."
"It's driving me crazy, and we don't even know anything."
"The higher-ups are even asking if we're hiding his identity."
"Ha..."
Since the establishment of the Climbing Bureau, everyone was teary-eyed at the massive amount of work.
The time when the sun passes the zenith and returns to the earth. I had finished clearing out the Open-Pit Mine and all the goblins in the vicinity.
"I like the solitude after a hunt."
A part of the forest had been burned and extinguished, leaving the smell of acrid burning wood. Countless goblin corpses were scattered on the ground. Killing goblins didn't give much experience, but through the massive slaughter, I leveled up once, and my Blunt Weapon Mastery level also increased. I had succeeded in hunting every single goblin by continuing the hunt I started in the morning for over a day and a half!
It was clear that the goblins, who were already dying as soon as I beat them up, were destined to be mere punching bags. Although my mind and body were still fresh after 32 hours of continuous hunting, I planned to retreat to the village as my auxiliary magic scrolls were running out. Since I had wiped out even the goblins near the Open-Pit Mine, I would have to tell the Baron to send defensive troops.
"Let's see, the ore the goblins mined..."
A massive amount of Black Iron Stone was piled up in a small clearing in the middle of the Open-Pit Mine! Even at a glance, it looked like several tons. It had been loaded into carts as if they were planning to transport it somewhere, but I put it all into my Extra-Dimensional Backpack. I tried to move the Black Iron Stone on the mine walls, but it wouldn't budge. It seemed it only became an item that could be stored once mined out with a pickaxe.
"Deposit all Black Iron Stone."
2.4 tons of Black Iron Stone successfully deposited into the Extra-Dimensional Backpack.
I had gained a ton of special ore while already making good use of a warhammer made of Black Iron Stone. I had obtained significant loot while killing all the goblins, but the biggest gain was the Black Iron Stone. As I returned to the village happily with all the Black Iron Stone, the guards looked at me with uncomfortably sparkling eyes.
"Adventurer, what do you plan to do with the goblin corpses?"
"I didn't really have any plans."
"Then, may we take them and use them as fertilizer?"
"Sure, go ahead."
The villagers were also glancing at me with flushed expressions, and I wondered what was going on, but it seemed they ground up monsters for fertilizer here. Well, I guess I hadn't thought of that because on Earth, we just use nitrogen fertilizer. Emily approached me at some point and said that everyone had been unable to sleep since yesterday morning because they could hear me slaughtering goblins from afar until this afternoon, but it was also because of the anticipation of defeating the loathsome goblins.
"To protect the village, my father, Sir Hans, and the soldiers couldn't leave, so normally, they would have requested reinforcements for the subjugation from Count Alsace."
"And... they probably would have had to pay a significant price. Like a stake in the Open-Pit Mine. They would have also had to collect a special tax from the territory residents to pay for supplies and thank the subjugation force."
True, with that many individuals, the Baron's forces wouldn't stand a chance. And a special tax... I remembered it being almost 70-80% in medieval territories. If they collected a special tax on top of the remaining 20%, wouldn't everyone starve?
"It's okay because there's a lot to gather in the Dark Forest. And since we have our territory's specialty, potatoes, we'll be able to get through the winter somehow."
When I saw the potato Emily handed me, it was indeed the potato I knew. She led me to the opposite side, where I had never been, saying she would show me where she planted the potatoes.
"It's a potato."
"Do you know about potatoes? They grow in abundance there every year. Once you grow the tree large, the soil doesn't get damaged much, and it bears many fruits every 3 months."
Before my eyes, I saw potatoes hanging in clusters from a tree about 3 meters tall. There were even 100 of them, not just one or two trees. Excuse me? A potato tree?