Chapter 6
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Translator: 8uhl
Chapter: 6
Chapter Title: Goblin Village (2)
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The Goblin Village was a dungeon of the lowest difficulty, also known as a practice dungeon.
The goblins on guard duty were small in stature and, more importantly, quite gaunt.
The goblins I remembered, unless they were hobgoblins, were monsters over two meters tall with thick muscles, skilled in wielding weapons.
“Hey, don't get in the way.”
Choi Min-hyuk, seeing me looking on from the front, pushed me.
I nearly toppled over with all my gear, but I managed to catch my balance.
“There's a good spot on the outskirts of the forest. We should be able to set up there.”
The forest wasn't very large, and just as Lee Ye-eun had said, there was an empty clearing on its outskirts.
We unpacked our things and looked around the clearing.
A single goblin village in a small forest, and an empty clearing in a prime location on the outskirts.
‘This is all a bit too convenient.’
No matter how I looked at it, the layout seemed designed with Hunters entering the dungeon in mind. It was obvious who would do something like this.
‘Those bastards have a sick sense of humor.’
I clenched my fists. At that moment, I sensed a presence. It was a goblin. The others seemed to have noticed as well.
“I'll take it!”
“Wait…”
Choi Min-hyuk drew his sword and charged the goblin before anyone could stop him.
The god Choi Min-hyuk served, ‘Elsion,’ was one of the gods of fire.
A quick internet search revealed he was a rather famous god. Flames flickered on Choi Min-hyuk's sword as he rushed the goblin.
Seeing the flames, the goblin retreated slightly.
When the goblin, deciding it was too dangerous alone, tried to flee, Choi Min-hyuk lunged forward and slashed its arm.
The goblin shrieked and staggered, its arm cleanly severed by the massive greatsword.
Bleeding profusely, the goblin raised its weapon. It seemed to realize it couldn't escape. At the same time, an arrow flew from the direction of the tents and embedded itself in the goblin's head.
The moment the arrow struck, it exploded.
As the goblin's head burst, Choi Min-hyuk used his greatsword to block the splattering blood.
Choi Min-hyuk snapped at Lee Ye-eun, who had fired the arrow.
“Hey, give it a clean death! It splattered everywhere!”
“That's because you were too slow.”
“Haha, don't fight. There's no point in us fighting amongst ourselves.”
“The smell of the corpse and blood might attract other goblins.”
At Nam Woon-ik's words, Kim Tae-woon shrugged lightly.
“I'll go dispose of the body.”
“Do it cleanly, you hear? Cleanly.”
Sheathing his greatsword, Choi Min-hyuk was still annoyed.
Choi Min-hyuk, who had spouted all sorts of nonsense before we entered the dungeon about me being powerless and useless, had barely spoken to me since we set up the tents.
It seemed he'd realized that treating me like I was invisible was much easier than getting angry.
Kim Tae-woon stuffed the goblin's corpse into a sack. As he shouldered the sack containing the body, his eyes met mine.
“Want to come with?”
“Oh, sure.”
The atmosphere was casual, with everyone speaking informally, so the informal speech came out naturally.
Choi Min-hyuk clicked his tongue and went inside his tent, while the remaining two paid no mind to me and Kim Tae-woon.
We headed to a stream some distance from the clearing to dispose of the goblin's body. After tossing the corpse in a suitable spot, he washed his hands in the water.
“I heard you got your ass handed to you in the mock battles with the others, so I thought you were completely useless. Looks like you know how to fight after all.”
At Kim Tae-woon's words, I scratched the back of my neck.
Most Hunters join a guild right after awakening.
Even though they weren't official Association Hunters yet, they could receive various benefits and support from the guild during their trainee period.
This included not just the basic training provided by the Association, but practical, on-the-job skills that could actually be used in dungeons.
‘An unfair game from the start.’
It wasn't that it was unfair; I was the abnormal one.
Even knowing this, I had no intention of trying to serve some god, not even if I died.
Even now, inside this dungeon, I still had questions about this system, and the feeling of disgust hadn't faded.
In any case, it was clear that Kim Tae-woon was quite skilled among the four members.
He'd noticed I knew how to fight just by the way I held my dagger. It would be rude to keep silent.
“I learned a little.”
“Doesn't seem like ‘a little.’ I won't press it. But I'd appreciate it if you don't test your own teammates like this again. I'm just saying, it's pretty shameless to get carried when you know how to fight.”
“I didn't think you'd even care.”
In fact, besides Choi Min-hyuk, the other two hadn't paid any attention to whether I was holding a dagger or not.
“Even if you're just a tagalong, you're still part of the headcount. If someone dies, we have to retake the test even if we clear the dungeon, so I have to care. Besides, just because you're powerless doesn't mean you're not an Awakened One, right?”
“That doesn't seem to be how most people think.”
I fully understood how despised an Awakened One was in this world for having no god to serve and no affiliation.
From their perspective, someone like Kim Tae-woon, who would say such things, was a heretic.
“True. But… my thinking changed a bit after seeing Choi Soo-hyun fight. He wasn't powerless from the start like you, but still. A powerless person is still a Hunter. And if you can use a dagger or a weapon, you can easily kill a goblin without any skills. Honestly, the guy who used a skill was an idiot.”
It was obvious who Kim Tae-woon was talking about.
Indeed, considering how weakly the goblin died, Choi Min-hyuk's fire and Lee Ye-eun's explosion skill were overkill.
Still, it was a relief that there was at least one person I could have a conversation with.
“I have a question. Is that guy really that strong?”
I had already looked up the rumors and various legends surrounding Choi Soo-hyun on the internet to some extent.
The problem was that no matter what he was said to have done, as someone from a completely different world, none of it really resonated with me.
If I had to give my impression,
it was just, ‘Ah, so this guy is famous and strong.’ That was about it.
Kim Tae-woon had witnessed Choi Soo-hyun fight in some capacity. Unable to contain my curiosity, I asked.
“That guy… no, you’ve seen Choi Soo-hyun fight, haven't you?”
“I only saw him from a distance during a dungeon break, but that was it. He took care of a Twin-Headed Ogre in an instant.”
A Twin-Headed Ogre was an A-rank monster that required about three B-rank Hunters to kill.
Forget skills; at the time, Choi Soo-hyun hadn't even drawn a weapon.
Watching Choi Soo-hyun casually sipping coffee while scolding the Guild Hunters who arrived late, Kim Tae-woon realized that affiliation and a Hunter's individual strength were separate issues.
Though he couldn't understand why Choi Soo-hyun, who could become even stronger with an affiliation, remained unaffiliated and worked as a civil servant for the Association.
After hearing Kim Tae-woon's entire story, I added a comment of my own.
“A monster is a monster, I see.”
I didn't know what an A-rank monster was, but if the Twin-Headed Ogre Kim Tae-woon mentioned was the same kind I knew, then he was truly a monster.
The goblins were weaker than I'd expected, so even if I factored in that the ogre might be a bit weaker too, the conclusion remained the same.
‘Even on the continent of Arbelicia, someone who could kill an ogre with their bare hands was a rare sight.’
I was more or less convinced. Kim Tae-woon muttered.
“I shouldn't have said that.”
“It happens.”
Kim Tae-woon lightly patted my shoulder and turned back toward the clearing with the tents.
‘They'll handle themselves, right?’
Kim Tae-woon and the others didn't seem completely ignorant about dungeons, so I didn't think anything major would happen.
‘I should start thinking about what to do after we get out of this dungeon.’
My mind was already preoccupied with how I was going to leech off Choi Soo-hyun after leaving the dungeon.
***
I stood for the night watch, but it was largely meaningless.
Kim Tae-woon approached as I was yawning. We switched at a good time. Time inside the dungeon passed just like in the real world.
We chose the moment just before dawn, when the sun was beginning to rise in the dim light, to launch our surprise attack.
An arrow shot by Lee Ye-eun struck a crudely built wooden hut and exploded.
As the goblins swarmed out, Kim Tae-woon and Choi Min-hyuk took them down.
Unlike Kim Tae-woon's clean approach, Choi Min-hyuk's sword was ablaze.
It looked less like a flaming sword and more like a lit matchstick being waved around.
I couldn't help it; that's just what it looked like.
Contrary to my expectation that the village would be small due to the few huts, quite a lot of goblins emerged.
Belatedly noticing their village was on fire, goblins from a nearby cave appeared as reinforcements.
There were at least thirty of them.
The individual small goblins weren't very strong, but it would have been a real headache if we hadn't dealt with all the village goblins before the ones from the cave arrived.
They hadn't grown complacent due to the obvious difference in strength; instead, they had assessed the enemy's situation, waited until dawn, and then executed their plan.
‘A flawless strategy with no room for criticism.’
Putting me aside, since I had no information about the dungeon, it was highly likely someone had given them information beforehand for them to proceed this way.
For a beginner-level dungeon like this, the amount of data compiled must have been substantial.
Thanks to Choi Min-hyuk's skill, the small village was instantly engulfed in a sea of flames.
A door in the middle of the village burst open, and a rather large goblin emerged.
Unlike the other scrawny goblins, it carried a proper weapon and wore a necklace of animal bones. It was obviously the boss, the goblin chieftain.
Seeing his goblins die in an instant, the chieftain roared in fury and charged at Kim Tae-woon.
Choi Min-hyuk quickly moved to block its path.
Nam Woon-ik, who was in the rear like me, used magic.
Three or four ice lances materialized above Nam Woon-ik. The ice itself looked sharp enough to pierce, so it didn't seem bad.
The ice lances Nam Woon-ik hurled struck the goblin chieftain's shoulder and thigh.
As the goblin chieftain staggered, Kim Tae-woon seized the opening and thrust his sword into its chest.
[The Goblin Chieftain (Boss) has been slain.]
[The exit gate will be activated once all remaining goblins are eliminated.]
[Remaining Goblins: 18]
The moment the goblin chieftain died, a status window notification appeared.
At the death of their chieftain, the goblins panicked and fled.
Naturally, the remaining four members methodically picked off the fleeing goblins as if by unspoken agreement.
Nam Woon-ik's ice lance pierced the chest of the last goblin, and at the same moment, the remaining goblin count dropped to zero.
[Goblins Remaining: 0]
[‘Goblin Village’ dungeon has been cleared.]
[Error :: Failed to generate exit gate.]
[Error :: Failed to generate exit gate.]
[Error :: Failed to generate exit gate.]
….
[Error :: Failed to generate exit gate.]
Something was wrong.