Chapter 5
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Translator: 8uhl
Chapter: 5
Chapter Title: First Request (3)
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“What’s this?”
I held out my hand and took what the goblin offered.
It was a transparent stone with a faint blue aura.
I'd never seen anything like it before.
“Kiruk!”
While I was pondering the stone's purpose, the goblin slave pointed to the empty space behind me.
“Oh.”
Following its gesture, I turned my head and took a slight step back.
A small, glowing gate had opened right above my head.
It was the same gate that had spat out the orb before.
“Kiruk.”
The goblin slave gestured again.
Understanding what it meant, I tossed the stone in my hand into the gate.
After a total of three stones had disappeared through the dimensional hole.
[Selling a total of 3 lowest-grade mana stones.]
[30 Gold has been deposited from the Dream Lord's Castle.]
*Ting!*
[Current Gold: 30]
The gate closed, and with the sound of a cash register, my gold balance was updated.
That cleared things up.
It had to be a system where you use summons to collect mana stones from monster corpses and then trade them.
“Okay, you did great, Gono.”
I patted the goblin's helmet with a satisfied expression.
“Kiruk!”
[The goblin slave's affinity has increased by 5!]
I dismissed the useless info window and started thinking again.
Well, the request is complete for now.
“Time to get moving.”
It was time to head back.
I'd only just figured out how to earn gold.
There was still a lot to learn about how 'MonMonMak', the skill I'd acquired, interacted with this world.
“First, we need to harvest the corpses. Gono, you help too.”
“Kiruk!”
I had to collect proof of the kill to get paid for the request.
The moment Gono and I moved to harvest the goblin corpses.
*Th-th-thump!*
“Hm?”
The ground beneath my feet vibrated.
Or rather, it would be more accurate to say I had only just noticed the vibration.
It was a minor tremor, the kind that would only cause ripples in a teacup.
But.
*Fw-fw-fw-whoosh!*
Suddenly, from the forest beyond the spring, countless birds took flight in a panic.
*Crack, snap!*
Soon, the sound of thick trees and bushes being brutally snapped echoed out.
The tremors shaking the ground grew exponentially with it.
*Thud, thud, thud!*
And just after the vibrations drew near.
A few pine trees right behind the spring toppled forward.
“Groooaar?”
A massive ogre appeared, stomping on the shattered pine stumps.
“...”
Right after looking up at the ogre's head, which was the size of a small child.
*What the hell? Why is an ogre here?*
Only one thought came to mind.
*In 'MonMonMak', an ogre is a 3-star mid-tier summon... no, that's not it.*
Ogres are high-risk monsters that appear in C-rank gates or higher.
Which meant, of course, that it had nothing to do with the three goblins I just dealt with.
I quickly scanned the three-meter-tall monster and narrowed my eyes.
*It's wounded.*
I noticed things I hadn't seen right when we met.
The creature's yellow skin was covered in stab wounds.
One of its thighs was caved in, as if struck by a giant hammer.
Even one of its eyes was streaming blood, seemingly pierced by a sharp weapon.
*Which means...*
The scattered puzzle pieces finally clicked into place.
*So the Pungbaek Hunters who came into the forest a few days ago were after this thing.*
Ogre byproducts fetch a very high price.
In short, it was 'dangerous but profitable'.
As a result, requests related to ogre gates were always snatched up quickly.
This time, Pungbaek must have gotten the intel first and sent a few rookie Hunters for some practical experience.
The reason I concluded they were rookies was...
*Experienced Hunters would never let a monster escape so carelessly.*
Anyway, what now?
“Groooaar.”
The ogre had spotted Gono and me but wasn't making any rash moves.
It just growled, its eye darting downward.
Perhaps because of its severe injuries, the creature seemed extremely intimidated.
*Can I take it on?*
Of course, I couldn't rush in recklessly either.
An ogre was a monster that required at least three C-rank Hunters to take down.
On top of that, an unfamiliar info window appeared in the corner of my vision, pressuring me.
[3 minutes remaining until the goblin slave returns to the Lord's Castle.]
I thought I could work him to the bone once I hired him, but that wasn't the case.
That means I have to take down that ogre within three minutes.
*This is tricky.*
It was true that Gono had shown overwhelming combat power against a higher-grade goblin.
But there was still too much I hadn't confirmed.
I didn't know to what extent the 'item buff' applied in reality.
In reality, the power difference between a goblin and an ogre was literally overwhelming.
Surely Gono must be trembling at the sight of the ogre's sheer might…
“Kirrrk...”
“?”
It's laughing?
I looked at Gono, who wore a wicked grin, and asked dubiously.
“Gono, can you do it?”
“Kiruk!”
Gono answered while brandishing his club.
An overwhelming confidence radiated from its small frame.
I considered it.
It wouldn't be showing baseless confidence.
“Then show me what you've got.”
*Fwoosh!*
The moment the order was given, Gono activated Crow's Wingbeat and shot forward.
“Groooaar?!”
Only then did the ogre react.
Its remaining eye filled with a mix of emotions.
Bewilderment, confusion, and finally, rage.
It was only natural for it to be dumbfounded when a goblin that barely came up to its shin charged forward with a wicked grin.
“Groooaar!”
The ogre let out an enraged roar and raised the club in its hand.
The club, carved from a whole log, was wider than Gono's entire body.
But Gono didn't seem to feel the overwhelming pressure at all.
“Kiruguuk!”
[Crow's Wingbeat (A)]
It leaped into the air as if taking flight.
The movement was reminiscent of a bouncy ball ricocheting high off the ground.
“Grrrruuuh!”
The ogre swung its club upward like a baseball player swinging a bat.
It intended to obliterate the leaping goblin in mid-air.
But the goblin didn't dodge.
Instead.
It brought its own club down hard on the log flying toward it.
*KWAANG!*
Hercules's Club met the log club.
An ear-splittingly intense crash echoed out.
The clash of strength sent a gust-like shockwave through the air.
The ogre's mouth fell open in a daze.
Gono, on the other hand, narrowed its eyes further and flashed a wicked grin.
*C-c-crack!*
The sound of splintering wood.
Hercules's Club was digging into the thick log.
A contest of strength.
No, it was a contest of items, and the ogre had lost.
“Groooaar?!”
Realizing the gravity of the situation, the ogre tried to let go of its splintering club and retreat.
But before its lumbering body could move.
*K-k-krack!*
Gono's strike, shattering the log in its path and descending, was faster.
*Thwack!*
“Kuek?!”
Gono's club struck the crown of the ogre's head.
The center of its skull caved in, forming a U-shape.
Like something out of a cartoon, the ogre's eyes and tongue popped out.
*Tap.*
The goblin slave that had smashed the ogre's skull landed stylishly.
*KABOOM!*
The massive body collapsed a moment later, crushing what little vegetation remained.
It was over.
I walked over to the goblin slave, who was already waiting for me.
What else was there to say?
With an infinitely benevolent expression, I stroked the back of the goblin slave's head.
“Kiruk.”
The miraculously item-buffed goblin bowed and offered me what it held in its hand.
It was a mana stone.
But this time, its size was on a completely different level from the ones I got from the three goblins.
If those were the size of ice cubes in an iced Americano.
This one was large and heavy enough to fill my entire hand.
“Good work, Gono.”
The goblin slave bowed its head deeply at my praise.
Then, an info window popped up before my eyes.
[The goblin slave is returning to the Lord's Castle! Next deployment available in 24 hours.]
*Poof!*
Gono vanished with the sound of a popping balloon, and a purple orb landed in my hand.
I pocketed the orb and tossed the mana stone I was holding into the gate that had appeared.
[Selling a total of 1 mid-low grade mana stone.]
[100 Gold has been deposited from the Dream Lord's Castle.]
*Ting!*
[Current Gold: 130]
The same status window as before appeared.
100 gold wasn't bad.
As I nodded in satisfaction, I narrowed my eyes at the new information that followed.
[You have sold a mana stone imbued with an ogre's soul for the first time! The Lord's Castle has granted 1 Gacha Ticket.]
“...What?”
I rubbed my eyes.
A gacha ticket? Don't tell me it's *that*?
The very thing that turned 'MonMonMak' from a god-tier generous game into a legendary scam game?
[You can perform a Premium Gacha with the ticket.]
[Would you like to go to the Premium Gacha page?]
I pressed my earlobe to agree.
And I muttered as I stared at the new screen that appeared before me.
“...Yep, that's it.”
A screen with a ceaselessly spinning box marked with a '?', and below it, the words '1 Premium Gacha'.
It was the exact paid item gacha window from 'MonMonMak'.
But I wore a sour expression.
Weren't they monster-exclusive items?
In my current situation, with limited gold and a limited selection of monsters to hire, it was a largely useless item.
“In that case, I'll just save the gacha tickets and use them when I can hire a decent monster...”
I stopped mid-sentence.
Because I'd spotted the small text written below the mystery box.
[Items obtained from the gacha can also be equipped by the user.]
Huh?
The user can equip them too?
That line wasn't in 'MonMonMak'.
Which made sense. In 'MonMonMak', the user had no physical form; they were like a god observing the game from the outside.
There was no way a user-exclusive inventory would exist.
But this was reality.
The user—or more accurately, I—had a physical form.
“Which means...”
The power of items that lets even a low-level trash mob like a goblin beat down an ogre.
Doesn't that mean I can get that same item buff?
I swallowed hard and was about to touch my earlobe to activate the gacha box.
“Team Leader, this way! The tracks lead this way!”
“Stop reporting every little thing to the Team Leader and move! If we hesitate and that thing attacks a residential area, a written apology won't be enough for any of us!”
“I know, so stop rushing me, will you?”
Suddenly, the murmuring of unfamiliar voices came from beyond the bushes.
“Team Leader, the creature is this way...?”
Then, from the exact direction the ogre had appeared, a person pushed through the undergrowth.
It was a man in a form-fitting suit, holding a scimitar in one hand.
“Hey, why'd you stop?”
Following him, two more figures emerged one after another.
They all did the same thing as the man with the scimitar.
They'd appear with sharp eyes, radiating killing intent.
Then they'd spot the ogre lying there with its skull crushed.
And then they'd stare blankly at me, standing near the corpse's feet.
“Everyone, we don't have time. If we delay...”
And following them, the final 'Team Leader' appeared.
“?”
The moment my eyes met the Team Leader's, I shut my mouth.
A swaying ponytail.
A massive hammer on her back that suited her distinct features and confident face.
The idol of the Pungbaek Guild.
Yoon Sua was looking back and forth between me and the ogre's corpse.