The Goblin King's Bargain
Even today, the plump bug flew plumply through the tower (F).
Soaring through the sky at high speed, the bone goblins couldn't keep up properly.
Whether it was because they lacked intelligence like typical undead, they ended up tangled with each other while chasing and took care of themselves…
"It feels like there are more of them the farther we go?"
"Ugh, it's too fast!"
Instead of decreasing, their numbers kept growing.
If this continued, even if we reached the Goblin King, we'd probably be buried under bones and unable to do anything.
In that case, what I could do now was…
"…Mother."
I checked how many points were left for the Mother skill.
I didn't want to create and use Moss right now, but it seemed unavoidable if I wanted to clear this floor easily.
There wasn't much to think about.
Since I wasn't making them properly, I just needed to create the bugs I needed right now.
For now… an explosion. An explosion to blow everything away would be enough.
A large amount of points will be consumed.
Knowledge regarding Multi-Spawning has been acquired.
"Huh?"
Some strange message popped up, but I felt eggs forming in my palm.
Since I was still holding Aria, I quickly pulled my hand with the eggs outward and looked.
A not-too-large egg had formed on my palm… I wondered if this would be enough.
It seemed insufficient… but it should still take out quite a few, right?
"Ugh, I felt something weird on my back just now. What was that?"
"It's nothing, so don't worry. We should be getting close to the Goblin King soon."
Crack—
The egg split open, and I gave orders to the bug that resembled a balloon beetle.
It was a shame that the first command I gave it right after birth was to self-destruct… but that was why it was born.
I watched as it rolled off my palm as if it had received the order.
It felt a bit heartbreaking to send it off like this…
The bugs, small enough to fit on my palm, fell and gradually grew larger.
They swelled up like balloons being filled with air, then caused a powerful explosion with a loud noise as they touched the bone goblins and the ground.
BOOOOOOM—!
"Eek! What happened again?!"
"Nothing much. I just took care of some goblins."
The cleanly exploded bones of the goblins, scattered beyond recovery, clearly reduced the increasing number of monsters.
As expected, explosions were best for dealing with things like this.
Seeing Moss, who had stopped flying and was hovering in place, I figured the Goblin King was over there.
Since we'd arrived, I slowly stopped flapping my wings and dropped to the ground.
THUD—!
"Over there!"
"Yes, I can see it clearly."
Among the goblins wearing armor and robes, there was one that was particularly large and looked evil.
On its head was a shiny crown that didn't suit it—probably stolen from someone—and it held a staff decorated with ominous skulls.
Anyone could tell this was the boss of this floor, so I prepared myself.
"Aria, I saw you handle the undead earlier. What else can you do?"
"I can cast a blessing on you."
"Then please do. I think we need to finish this quickly."
The Goblin King was grinning creepily at me, so I really needed to deal with it fast.
The mission said to stop the Goblin King's plan, so it was definitely preparing something.
I had to suspect everything.
Why were all the troops gathered in one place like that?
What was that staff the Goblin King was holding, with purple flames burning in the skull's eye sockets?
And what was that magic circle drawn on the ground…?
"…I think I just need to take care of all of that."
"Yes?"
"Ah, never mind."
"Understood. Then… O God, watch over us firmly and grant us a miracle. Bless!"
Along with Aria's words, a feather-like light settled on my body, and I felt lighter.
With the clearly felt blessing, I clenched and opened my fist, then looked ahead.
Seeing the goblins starting to approach, I prepared as well.
The things I could use now were… Carapace, Swarm Bugs, and Moss…
"I'll leave the undead to you."
"Y-Yes?"
From what I'd seen of Aria's attack earlier, she had wiped out the undead in one go, so I figured I could trust her with it.
At the very least, she wouldn't interfere with the fight.
Since the enemy had so many numbers, it didn't seem right to use the Swarm Bugs just as armor.
"Swarm, spread out and subdue everyone. Moss, do what you've been doing."
After giving orders to the two bugs, I grabbed the sword swung by a goblin with my Carapace-covered hand and pulled.
As the goblin was yanked forward, the Swarm Bugs that had been worn like a suit spread out like a net and clung to the goblins' bodies.
The Swarm Bugs themselves didn't have much strength, but their advantage was that they all thought the same and never let go once they bit.
While the Swarm Bugs bit into the gaps in the armor and the Moss stabbed their sharp mouths whenever an opening appeared, sucking blood and firing the sucked blood sharply to attack, I snatched the sword from the goblin I was holding.
"Kihit?!"
"This isn't as good as Sword, but I'll make good use of it for now."
I wasn't particularly skilled in swordsmanship, but I was confident I could swing it better than a goblin.
A sword was just… if you swung it this way and that, wouldn't it cut the enemy in half?
Slash—! Thud—!
In the stories, swinging it would definitely slice the opponent, but when I only managed to send the goblin flying like hitting it with a hammer instead of cutting properly, I scratched my cheek.
"Hmm… Sword really is better, huh?"
Clicking my tongue at the unsatisfactory result, I threw the sword at the fallen goblin and embedded it.
Attacking with my bare hands seemed more efficient than using a sword.
At least my Carapace-covered arms could pierce through without getting blocked by armor like this.
It didn't look that strong, but… it was really amazing.
While dealing with the armored goblins that were hindering movement, I made sure they couldn't use magic recklessly.
The first ones to take care of were definitely the mages, right?
But since there weren't many goblins using magic, Moss could handle them well.
There wasn't much I could do even if I ran a little faster.
But…
"Still… there are so many."
I was getting closer to the Goblin King, but no matter how many goblins it had brought, there was no end in sight.
It would have been nice to have bomb bugs again at a time like this…
It was a shame, but it wasn't like I couldn't break through.
"Moss! Can you do a big one?!"
Seeing Moss spinning largely in the sky, I prepared immediately.
Once again, I spread the Swarm Bugs to cling to the goblins.
But there was a difference this time.
Instead of just dropping them, I connected them like ropes, linking the goblins to me.
"Hup—!"
I pulled the connected goblins with force.
It was heavy… but with the help of the Swarm Bugs, it wasn't too much to pull.
Surprised by the sudden pull, the goblins were dragged forward, and I immediately gave the attack order to Moss.
But… even though I said it, did Moss have an attack method that could take them all down at once?
Whoosh—!
At that moment, I was surprised by Moss's attack method that I hadn't expected.
It wasn't much different from before, but using its short front legs to cover its own leaves and make the blood stream thinner to increase cutting power made me wonder if it was really a genius.
Was it okay for a bug to be this smart?
As the goblins fell to the ground from Moss's blood stream, I immediately ran forward while flapping the still-present Silver Wing wings.
Chrrrrr—
With the unique sound of the Silver Wing wings vibrating, I trampled over the goblins and arrived in front of the Goblin King.
"Kek, you are strong! You have mercilessly slaughtered my people."
"I don't particularly want to talk to a monster."
Seeing the Goblin King trying to talk, I clenched my fist and carefully observed it.
The Goblin King reflected in my eyes didn't seem particularly impressive.
It was just bigger and sturdier than a regular goblin… Honestly, the goblin holding the magic sword had looked stronger.
As it held the staff with both hands as if calculating something, I prepared myself as well.
If I could pierce its head in one go…
"Kerk, wait a moment."
"Hmm?"
"You… kekek, don't you want power? Kerk, if you hand over the saintess you brought, I'll give you tremendous power."
"Power? What do you mean?"
I thought for a moment about what the goblin meant by offering power.
Since Aria had said it was black magic, was it related to that?
What I could infer was that it seemed to be trying to use Aria as a sacrifice to cast some large-scale black magic.
"Kerk, if I use that woman, a god will descend. And the god will grant our wishes."
"A god? How do you know that?"
"The one who gave me the staff told me. It gave us knowledge."
"The one who gave the staff?"
"You can make a wish then too. So just hand over the woman."
I was dumbfounded by the Goblin King confidently raising the staff and striking the ground.
The one who gave the staff was probably a black mage.
The Goblin King seemed to be getting used as well.
To offer Aria as a sacrifice for black magic it didn't even understand properly…
As expected, goblins really were idiots.
It was just big, but being king didn't mean much, huh?
"Kerk, so what will you do?"
"My answer is… as if!"
I immediately thrust my prepared fist toward the Goblin King's head.
No matter what, listening to a goblin's words wasn't something a human should do.
And it was black magic—who knew what would happen.
Honestly, I didn't have a bad impression of black magic, but since a monster was using it, discrimination seemed inevitable.
Crack—!
"Oh."
"Kyark! Even after I gave you a chance, you reject it like this! You're an idiot!"
As it waved the staff and raised bones, it seemed all the bone goblins that had been created so far were thanks to the staff.
No wonder the number of monsters to defeat hadn't increased.
It couldn't summon because it was trying to talk to me?
Looking angry, it waved the staff and fired flames that I shouldn't touch, so there was no need to hold back anymore.
Just now, I had been able to stop it because the conversation had shown me its preparation movements.
If we weren't talking…
Chrrrrrrrr—
"Too slow."
"Kyahaak!"
Faster than it could defend, I passed by while breaking the Goblin King's staff.
As the staff broke, the skeletons that Aria had been struggling to defeat also collapsed and found rest.
Looking at the Goblin King's trembling eyes, I smiled and dusted off my hands.
"Finish it."
"Kerk?"
Along with the command, I watched as the Swarm Bugs and Moss charged toward the Goblin King, granting it a horrific end.
Seeing the Goblin King die, engulfed by bugs, I checked the mission.
"Okay. All missions complete."
As expected, the Goblin King had been the answer.
Satisfied that all missions were completed, I went to Aria.
With this… today had been tiring, so I'd stop climbing here.
What would happen to Aria?