18. Goblin Village
"How are we going to deal with this disaster?"
"Aren't there people stuck sitting at level 4? The desperate ones will go on their own."
"Those people? No way. It's not even a monster with an obvious weakness; it's a goblin village."
"I'd rather you didn't ask me for help."
Four people were talking like that in a private room of an upscale inn.
A blond, blue-eyed man, Rinos.
A man with gray hair and scars across his face, Nestor.
A female elf with water-colored hair and eyes, Eira.
A gloomy, black-haired middle-aged man, Dismas.
The guardian's aide lamented that this was far too frivolous for a conversation among the guardians—the only level 6 party in the City of Light, who bore the duty of protecting the city in emergencies.
It had been a few hours since it became known that the disaster that periodically struck the city had this time appeared in the form of a goblin village.
It was good that a meeting to deal with it had been convened quickly, but at this rate, it didn't seem likely to produce a proper result.
Then again, ordinary disasters weren't their responsibility. Even their talk here was merely confirmation from an administrative standpoint.
"If an ordinary level 4 party of four challenged it, they'd have to be prepared for casualties. It's that kind of monster horde."
"Right. No one in their right mind would challenge it."
"Anyone that crazy would've ended up in the afterlife or down on the middle floors long ago."
"So are we putting up a bounty again this time?"
In this labyrinth, there were points where the difficulty spiked sharply compared to the previous level.
At level 5, level 11, and, according to rumor, level 17 as well.
At levels 4, 10, and 16—the levels just before those spikes—special restrictions were imposed.
You couldn't offer sacrifices by defeating monster hordes below your own level.
It was fine if the individual monsters were low-level. If the combined experience of the entire monster horde fought at once fell below a certain threshold, you gained nothing from fighting.
That was why those who wanted to descend to the middle floors huddled in the city. Until a manageable disaster struck.
If a fire-breathing monster appeared, you prepared fire countermeasures and fought safely. The same went for poison-spitting monsters.
If a regenerating monster appeared, you just prepared fire or acid and went.
Like this, when a disaster appeared and the strategy was clear, it could be taken down far more easily than its difficulty suggested.
Ordinary level 4s slowly subjugated such disasters and accumulated experience.
To force such people into action, there was no choice but to offer a special bounty.
Something like a rare magic item, hard to obtain on the upper floors.
"I told you, even if you ask for my help, I can't help."
So said the wealthiest man in the City of Light, a Rogue with connections to the middle and lower floors who collected rare goods.
"Why not?"
"I found a new rough gem this time."
"Ah, that one? He's impressive."
Eira chimed in agreement with Dismas's words.
"I figured you'd recognize it."
"So you're saying you won't put up a bounty?"
"That's for you all to decide."
While the conversation was going in circles,
"Urgent report!"
A man came running from outside the room and handed a paper to the aide.
The aide's face crumpled as he read it.
"Guardians, a problem has arisen. A level 3 pair has apparently accepted the goblin village subjugation mission."
The aide was thinking that if they wanted to die, they could at least do it quietly when Eira asked,
"Is it, by any chance, an outsider and a halfling Rogue?"
"Er, yes, that's right."
"What did you say?!"
Eira sneered at the flustered Dismas.
"What, you didn't even properly figure out what you picked up?"
"No matter how much of an outsider he is, it's impossible for two people to face a disaster of this level! And at night, no less?!"
"You'd better stop measuring that one by ordinary standards."
"That's not the point!"
Dismas rushed out saying he would summon a pursuit team, and Eira watched him go with a smile.
"This meeting is over, then."
Rinos declared calmly.
"I just hope they don't needlessly grow the disaster."
"Hm? You don't need to worry about that."
Having said that, Eira added,
"If it's him, he'll probably be the one to deal with this disaster instead."
***
Compared to how boldly I'd left Kwon Chae-a behind, it was quite a while later before we entered the forest.
"Did you really have to do that?"
Tia looked at me with a flushed face.
The first reason was that I needed to take a long rest and readjust the Feature I'd received from Tia. Because of that, I'd needed to get a separate room and spend some enjoyable time.
After that, I'd had to confirm that Kwon Chae-a had left, then pack our adventuring gear and come out of the room.
I gripped my sword—the second reason—and said,
"I couldn't help it. That's just how the ability works."
Dismas's gift, which I'd checked just in case before departing, was an incredible item. I'd spent an hour examining it, then another hour attuning it to my sword, so I'd ended up using two hours.
Because of that, I briefly felt bad for the Temple of the Travel God, which had ended up receiving guests so late at night.
"But Tia, did you really have to accept that request?"
"Of course. If we're going to subjugate it anyway, shouldn't we obviously collect the extra pay?"
"But then it'll be obvious that we did it."
"On the contrary, if no one stepped forward and the disaster was suddenly subjugated, that would cause an even bigger problem."
Tia said that in the process of resolving that question, the matter would only get noisier and our identities would eventually be exposed. If that was the case, I could agree to some extent.
"Even so, too much attention is a bit burdensome."
"You don't need to worry. Think about whose support you're receiving."
"Hm, Ms. Eira?"
"And not just her—aren't you walking around wearing Lord Dismas's gift?"
Tia reassured me that as long as I had the protection of two of the city's four guardians, any unwanted attention would quickly die down if I didn't want it.
In that case, let's go get Lee Se-rin's medicine with peace of mind.
***
Night is the time of monsters.
Even a goblin-warrior horde that a level 1 party could defeat if they were willing to accept casualties could wipe out a party at night.
Let alone a village with eight goblin warriors and sixteen goblin minions; at night, even a level 5 party far beyond upper-floor adventurers would struggle against it.
That's right. If the enemy were an ordinary adventurer.
Shwooo.
An arrow flew through the darkness and pierced a goblin warrior's head.
That was already the fourth one.
The goblins, who had been swaggering as if this were their time, were being ambushed in the darkness and thoroughly hunted.
"Krek! Kruk! Kwek!"
At the enraged goblin boss's shout, the goblins advanced with all their might.
But after firing a single arrow, the opponent slipped back into the darkness.
Until they closed the distance and brought the figure within their 18-meter Darkvision range, even tracking was difficult.
They could do nothing but send goblin minions forward to close the distance, and in the meantime, goblin warriors were being pierced by arrows.
It was only after six of the eight goblin warriors had died and two had been wounded that the goblins managed to get the Tracker in their sights.
***
The objective had been achieved.
The enemies that posed a problem for us right now were the goblin warriors and the boss, since they carried shortbows and could attack from range.
No matter how invisible we were, if our position was pinpointed, we could be hit by blind arrows.
So the Feature I'd adopted was
［Feature］Cunning Action
You can take the Dash, Disengage, or Hide action as a secondary action.
It was the level 1 Rogue Feature I'd received from Tia. After firing an arrow, if I hid and moved, they couldn't pinpoint my position, right?
With this, we kept repeating the same pattern: take down the goblin warriors one by one in the darkness, hide, then move.
This meant we'd eliminated a third of the enemy's fighting strength.
"Krek! Krek! Krak!"
A goblin boss a handspan taller than the other goblins, shouting orders.
Unlike the goblin warriors armed with leather armor, it wore a chain shirt, making it easy to distinguish.
The goblins acted as if they'd already won, slowly tightening their encirclement.
I decided to give them a second taste of despair.
"Darkness."
Where I pointed my staff, physical darkness rose in the night and blocked the goblins' view of us.
I entered it and activated a Feature.
［Feature］Innate Magic
It was a Sorcerer-specific buff that lasted for 1 minute.
Its effect was to grant advantage on Sorcerer spell attacks or raise spell save difficulty, but until now I'd had no reason to use it, so I hadn't.
However, the Subclass Feature I'd gained at level 3 had greatly changed how this ability worked.
［Feature］Mirage Armor
While Innate Magic is active, add your Charisma modifier (5) to your Armor Class.
In other words, for 1 minute, it was like having the Shield spell constantly active.
And if I used the Shield spell on top of that, my Armor Class was +10.
Even if you brought a decent frontliner, they wouldn't have this kind of durability.
So I advanced. I blocked the enemies from the front and became a shield.
Tia, following Eira's teaching, used the darkness as cover and fired arrows from behind.
Now, could the goblins break through this?
***
The goblins' response to the new spell was simple.
They rushed at me in the darkness, since I couldn't hide while activating the spell and Feature.
Even if they couldn't see, they could determine my position. If they determined my position, they could attack. And I showed them that that was the worst possible choice.
The goblin minions' daggers either cut through empty air in the darkness, were blocked by Mirage Armor, or were blocked by Mage Armor—they simply couldn't reach me.
The goblin warriors who could have provided supporting fire from outside had already been finished off by me and Tia.
Now only the goblin minions and the boss remained.
Before the goblin minions could fill the area on all sides, I used Hide and moved through the darkness, and the goblin boss attempted a bolder tactic.
It mobilized all the goblin minions and filled the pitch-black space.
A simple tactic: if the enemy hides in the darkness, just eliminate the space to hide in.
'Goblins are simple, so I figured they'd use a tactic like this.'
But I had already slipped out of the Darkness spell's area.
Because I'd learned that if darkness was blinding your eyes, you didn't necessarily have to hide inside the darkness.
'And if they're packed together like that, there's a spell for it.'
I put away the crossbow I'd used to kill the goblin warriors and took out my staff.
I pointed at the center of the darkness, where the goblins were densely packed.
"Shatter!"
KWA-BOOM—!
The shockwave of a 2nd-circle spell echoed through the darkness.
Of the sixteen goblin minions, only five survived.
And I slipped back into the darkness and hid with Cunning Action.
Now their last remaining advantage—their numerical superiority—had been greatly reduced.
It was time to finish.
***
The goblin boss, true to its name, displayed strength unbecoming of a goblin.
But strength unbecoming of a goblin wasn't enough to defeat me and Tia.
Perhaps knowing that if it fled it would only be tracked down and filled with arrows, the goblin boss charged at me head-on, but every sword it swung in the darkness was either blocked or cut through empty air.
The result was a one-sided slaughter.
We slowly whittled down its health, then finished it by cutting its throat.
Once even the last remaining goblin was dealt with, Tia approached me.
"To think we really took down a goblin horde of this size, just the two of us."
"I told you we could, didn't I?"
"Now, do we just need to take that medicine?"
"No. There's still one goblin left. A goblin shaman."
Just as I said that, an alarm bell rang in my head.
The other goblins' simple behavior had been part of the plan. Naturally, all of them had rushed out at once in response to our ambush.
When the goblin shaman hadn't shown itself, I'd thought it was being cautious.
But what if it wasn't simply caution?
Goblins had a common Feature called Nimble Escape.
［Feature］Nimble Escape
You can take the Disengage or Hide action as a secondary action.
A downgraded version of the Rogue's Cunning Action. But this Feature implied something.
That goblins specialized in hiding.
Of course, if it had been hiding, there had been plenty of opportunities to reveal itself until now.
If it cared about the horde's victory, it should have made some move to change the situation before the village was wiped out.
But what if it had been thinking only of itself, not the group's victory?
If such a foolish assassin had stayed hidden until the very end, who would it target?
"Watch out! Tia!"
Just as I shouted that, a spear was hurled from behind a tree.