My Trait Seems a Bit Overpowered

My trait seemed a bit overpowered. With the Agility +5 buff from the rune, my body felt noticeably lighter as I moved for about five minutes before encountering a pack of monsters early on. Unfortunately, they weren't hobgoblins. I signaled backward with a hand gesture. (Twenty regular goblins? That's actually perfect.) When Yeonhee said it was good, she didn't mean it was great for warming up—she was thinking of using them as bait.

Yeonhee whispered softly and gave the signal. All at once, the summons charged forward. 'No need to waste bombs on these guys.'

Tatatat— Swish! Khek!

Using the momentum from my charge, I lightly slashed across their necks. Goblin heads snapped at impossible angles as blood sprayed like fountains. 'Still not quite enough to cut through in one go.'

Thud!! Thwack! Kieeeek!!

In less than a minute, we'd taken down all twenty goblins. We quickly gathered the silver and other loot the goblins had been carrying. (Watch closely. Stab in like this in one motion, twist the angle, then pull downward like you're slicing...)

I demonstrated the butchering method to the summons. Everyone except Ttungi started mimicking it reasonably well. Ttungi—the kobold with his usual vacant expression—seemed to decide he needed to contribute too. He pulled something out of the pack on his back.

"Whoa— a low-grade magic stone! Thanks, Ttungi."

Hehehe— 'That little bastard. Is he trying to slack off by just handing over a magic stone?'

While harboring reasonable suspicions, I stored all the collected goblin bones in my inventory. I dug a pit in the ground to dump the blood from the byproducts, then moved a short distance away and hid in stealth. Yeonhee and the other summons were spread out and concealed in the dense undergrowth nearby.

'When are they coming...'

Hobgoblins were known to treat regular goblins like slaves. Being a greedy species, they'd rush over the moment they realized their property had been damaged. This was common knowledge among hunters.

Ow... my legs are cramping...

After about ten minutes, just as Yeonhee started shifting her legs, five hobgoblins appeared. They were noticeably larger than regular goblins, with bodies closer to red than green.

'None of them have poison stingers. Good.'

Their chins were covered in unkempt beards that looked like they'd never seen a comb, and their ears—sharper and more pointed horizontally—twitched constantly. Parararak— Their ears moved rapidly up and down, signaling that they'd noticed the poorly hidden summons. But I was already in stealth, bomb in hand, ready to throw.

Puhpuhpuhpuhng!! Kroaaak!!

The hobgoblins took the first strike as bombs exploded on their heads, losing far more than they'd expected. ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠Not only did they suffer grievous head wounds that would be difficult to recover from, but the sudden ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠attack brought mental confusion, blocked vision from the blast, slowed movement from pain, and impaired judgment from rage. The advantage of striking first was overwhelming.

Churururup— Chyahyah!!

The summons that followed immediately overwhelmed them in a many-versus-few situation.

Krrrrrrgh— Kehek—!

The hunt ended almost anticlimactically, leaving us feeling somewhat deflated.

"Wow... I didn't do anything at all..."

Yeonhee put the arrow she'd nocked back into her inventory, her expression complicated. She'd always contributed significantly to battles from the archer position, so this situation must have felt unfamiliar. Still, she'd adapt to this kind of combat soon enough and figure out what she needed to do.

Degraded Poison Gland — Continuously generates a small poison gland that eats away at health.

- When poisoned, maximum health decreases by 0.01% per second.

'So that's how they made the poison stingers? That's ridiculous. It's not even a venomous snake.'

This was the first time I'd learned that hobgoblins could produce poison on their own. When I immediately tried using the acquired skill, a small tube-like structure began forming deep inside my mouth.

'Aw, come on. Why does it have to grow in the corner of my mouth? That's annoying.'

I reached into my mouth, flicked off the newly formed tube, and a green poison gland about the size of half my pinky finger appeared.

'What am I supposed to do with this...'

I decided to store it in my inventory for now and think about it later. Whether I threw it or used it for something else, it seemed like it could be useful. But the moment I took out the poison gland, it withered and dried up instantly, becoming brittle.

'Hmm— So it becomes useless once separated from the body. That explains why no one figured out about the hobgoblin poison glands until now. If the organ breaks down the moment they die...'

Maybe they had their own method of extracting poison directly from the gland in their mouth?

'Sigh— It'd be nice if this could fuse with Contaminated Breath—'

As I was thinking that, a message suddenly appeared.

'There it is! I had a feeling they'd combine. The level jumped by three at once? The range increased by 9m, and the health drain effect doubled. This should be worth using more often.'

Contaminated Breath was most effective in confined spaces during prolonged battles, but so far we'd mostly fought in open areas, so there hadn't been many opportunities to use it.

'I'll have to use it frequently to level it up.'

Chururup—! Chyahyah!

Lizard No. 1 and Deonni were huddled together talking even after the battle. It was fascinating how well they got along despite being different species.

'The Lizard unit's performance has been excellent. I should raise their evaluation.'

Thanks to No. 1, the Lizard unit was maintaining formation distances better and moving more cohesively, their combat effectiveness steadily rising. In a way, it was like we were fighting with ten top-tier E-rank vanguards. No wonder the battles ended so easily.

Chururup—

Moreover, Lizard No. 1's physical abilities were already comparable to D-rank.

"Ilwol, we could move a bit faster."

Nod—

It was a reasonable judgment. Even I had approached conservatively before testing them in combat, but now that I'd confirmed we could dominate battles with a ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠successful Skeleton Bomb opening strike, it was time to be more aggressive. What made that possible was our sensory ability to detect enemies first and our stealth ability to approach undetected for the first strike.

"Let's move."

Clackclackclack Clack—

Stored: 49/54

While moving, I kept manufacturing bombs with one hand. Whenever my senses detected a monster, I'd go stealth + Skeleton Bomb for the opening strike, then follow up with an encirclement attack. We fought two or three times per hour, sometimes more, and kept winning with the same formula.

[Skeleton Bomber Ilwol - Lv.28]

After ten battles, my level had risen. I'd invested the points into Recovery, which had become more necessary due to bomb manufacturing.

'I don't expect a rune, but don't these guys have any traits worth stealing? I've killed over fifteen of them.'

Well, what kind of special abilities could hobgoblins have? Aside from the goblin trait of growing stronger when grouped together, they probably had nothing.

Mana: 33/90

'I need at least 30 recovery per hour to feel stable. 20 isn't nearly enough.'

My mana recovery rate still couldn't keep up with my usage.

'Running into monsters too often is a problem too. Maybe I should adjust the pace.'

Before I knew it, the sun was directly overhead. We moved to a defensible location, and Yeonhee ate a convenience store sandwich for a late lunch.

'This dungeon doesn't have any hidden spaces I know of, and there aren't any particularly suspicious locations either.'

I'd been paying extra attention to underground areas in case we ran into Blue Eye members again, but without much success.

Clackclack Clack—

Stored: 29/54

"Ilwol, how many bombs do you have left?"

Since Yeonhee couldn't track my bomb count, she asked about it frequently. Diligent communication between team members was extremely important inside dungeons, and in that regard, Yeonhee was a diligent model student.

"Hobgoblins don't seem to travel in large groups as often as I thought? The records said groups of over ten appear frequently... Ah!"

'If you say something like that, you're bound to run into them.'

Sure enough, the hobgoblin pack we encountered after an hour of fruitless ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠searching numbered a full seventeen. Yeonhee quickly covered her mouth, giving me an apologetic look.

'With that many, if we wrap up this fight well, we could head home right after.'

Three of them had tubes around their necks—the ones that used poison stingers.

'If we take those out first, it shouldn't be too difficult. The stealth and bomb combination really is overpowered, even by my standards.'

Sssssk—

Now my body moved before my words.