A Skeleton's Thievery and the Goblin Encampment

The opportunity, the misjudgment. She was probably behind me right now, head turned away with her eyes squeezed shut. I had no idea how long she would keep doing that, but if it was limited to the Mole Cricket, there was no need to press her about it. In fact, even Kang Yeonsu of the White Knight Guild never bothered touching them, yet no one dared call her soft-hearted.

Haha… Honestly, the constant stream of new skills was getting overwhelming. A dry laugh escaped me.

Really, this is… I had studied countless traits and skills recorded over the decades, but nothing came close to being this mysterious. So that’s why you could find Mole Crickets in pretty much every dungeon. It turned out they served as the lowest-tier cleaners ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠in the dungeon ecosystem.

“You got another skill, Ilwol? But… can you even eat?”

Yeah. The problem is that I can’t actually eat anything… Anyway, I’d think about that later. Before the goblins swarmed in, drawn by the scent of blood, there was one last thing I needed to grab.

A leg bone should do. Before Wangwang could start gnawing on my own bones again, I planned to cut one off for him. Now that I had the same skill, I was curious to see exactly how the process worked.

I held my hand out to Yeonhee. She tilted her head for a moment before handing me her dagger.

Isn’t this a little too human? Still, my hands moved with practiced ease, slicing open the goblin’s thigh and splitting the flesh in a clean line.

Shrrk— Maintaining the quality of byproducts was difficult, but simply harvesting the bone wasn’t that hard. Goblins were among the easier monsters to dismantle, so I quickly secured one leg bone, wiped the blood off with some weeds growing on the ground, and stored it in my inventory. The whole process took only two or three minutes.

Yeonhee watched the entire time with her mouth hanging open and her hands politely clasped together. Even as we left the area to search for new prey, she kept chattering at me.

“How is that even possible? Maybe the dismantling knowledge in my head is being reflected onto ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠my summoned creatures. That’s it! If I stuff as much information into my brain as possible…!”

Most of her guesses were far from the truth, but since it was possible that summons operated on that kind of mechanism, I simply kept walking in silence. These were questions that could only be answered once I saw the next summons after Wangwang, so I let her words wash over me and focused on the net of my senses.

There really aren’t many today… Compared to last time, the number of monsters caught in my sensory net had been cut in half.

I was hoping to run into stronger ones after growing a bit more… Among the jokes that circulated among dungeon hunters was something called the Law of Monster Conservation. It was a kind of jinx—if there were fewer monsters than usual, the odds of encountering something far more powerful increased by that same amount. There was actually quite a bit of theoretical evidence to support it, so many hunters chose to withdraw early on days like this.

It seemed Yeonhee had also picked up on the uneasy atmosphere. She spoke to me in a whisper.

“Do you think… we might run into a Goblin Hundred Captain today?”

That was something even the heavens couldn’t predict, so I just shook my head vigorously.

“It still feels too ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠early… right?”

I nodded. Of course, catching one would be great. After all, the only monster in this dungeon that dropped low-grade runes was the Goblin Hundred Captain. The drop rate was over seventy percent, too.

A Goblin Hundred Captain might sound impressive, but it was really just a lazy chief of a small tribe. Even so, you had to be careful—only those with stats above a certain threshold ever rose to that position. In other words, they were goblins born with exceptional physical talent. On top of that, they were always accompanied by around ten other goblins, so there was no doubt they would be too much for the two of us right now.

For the time being, we should avoid them. I considered moving up my plans to invest in my sensory stat as we moved, but eventually we ended up locating the goblin settlement anyway. That meant the Hundred Captain was somewhere nearby.

It’s farther from the center than I expected? Hmm—

We took up a position on a hill and observed the goblin encampment spread across a fairly wide, low-lying plain below.

“There’s so many… We need to call for help. This is too much.”

Yeonhee, who was usually cautious in her judgments, reached that conclusion quickly. Obviously the two of us couldn’t handle it alone. We’d need to gather at least fifty of the F-rank hunters who had entered this time to clear it without taking heavy losses.

Over a hundred goblins were busy maintaining their own little territory inside a crude wooden barricade made from loosely tied branches. Some people saw monsters that formed communities like this and labeled hunters as invaders, but if we didn’t kill them now, they would multiply rapidly and cause a dungeon break. If we didn’t want to see those creatures brutally tearing ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠apart civilians in the city afterward, there was no room for mercy.

But right now, the ones who need mercy are us. The reason it had been so hard to find goblins wandering around unprotected was probably because a powerful leader had emerged and established some form of order.

(Ilwol, let’s move slowly…)

She whispered very quietly as she crept forward, but she suddenly froze. It was probably because of the goblin that had entered her line of sight.

Of course it’s bigger than the others. Still just a goblin, though. Even from a distance, I could see one that was a full head taller than the rest. It was stretching lazily in the center of the settlement. I watched it for a moment, gauging its strength.

If I sneak up with stealth, hit it with acid first, then go all-in with a heavy strike… No, that still won’t work. It’s nowhere near enough. I would need to invest in my magic power stat to extend my stealth duration and raise my strength stat so I could kill it before the other goblins could interfere. In the end, the only conclusion was to retreat.

Yeonhee also turned and began moving again. After walking for about ten minutes and putting some distance between us and the settlement, we luckily came across a group of goblins. Without a word, we followed our established routine. There were three in total.

Kiiik! Kruk! Krrgh—! Taking them down was over in an instant.

“Wow… It really feels like the world has been flipped upside down.”

She grumbled about how much she had struggled to kill just three goblins when she used to hunt alone. Shooting, running, shooting again, creating distance—the endless repetition. But now their entire combat style had changed, and she had to adapt to that. It wasn’t for nothing that the vanguard position was so highly valued among hunters. It was an incredibly difficult role that required willingly taking on dangerous, dirty, and exhausting work. Now her summons were eagerly competing to handle all of that for her out of loyalty.

All Yeonhee had to do was stay in the back, prioritize her own safety, and give commands.

I really should have killed Jo Giman back when Yeonhee still didn’t know anything. I still don’t understand why he stabbed us in the back later, though. I had my suspicions, but there was no point in drawing conclusions based on my personal opinions.

“This time let’s skip dismantling and move on right away.”

Obviously. Since we weren’t that far from the large settlement yet, we needed to put more distance between us. After moving for another ten minutes or so, we discovered around twenty hunters gathered near a massive tree trunk.

We crept close enough to overhear their conversation. They were exchanging some rather interesting opinions.

It looked like several of them were debating, but surprisingly few were making rational decisions.

(What are they doing…? They’re not seriously thinking of attacking that settlement, are they?)

Yeonhee watched them from behind the bushes with anxious eyes.

They can’t be that stupid. It doesn’t look like a pre-formed team. They probably just gathered in the clearing because something felt off… Surely they’ll stop once they realize how hard it is to reach a consensus.

But my prediction was proven completely wrong. About ten more hunters joined from the forest on the other side. After a brief but heated argument, they seemed to settle on attacking. After a few minutes of individual preparation, they began moving toward the settlement we had seen earlier.

“Ugh… What should we do…?”