Chapter 290
Enormous magical power began to generate lightning around the twenty swords._TITLE: Goblins Swarming from Every Side
Both Manuela and Paranet seemed to have grasped, well enough, just how strong the goblins swarming in from every side truly were.
Yujun's expression was dead serious.
"Don't either of you look away. I might not be able to protect you."
"Yes, my lord!"
"Okay."
Yujun raised a barrier of modest range. It was only enough to shield the party for a short while, so none of them could afford to relax. Through Sword Unity he conjured twenty swords into the empty air—a number he could now create and control with ease. Even so, he would not normally replicate so many blades. That alone showed how wary he was of these goblins.
Aside from the brown skin, they don't look all that different from ordinary goblins.
They weren't even particularly large. And yet, somehow, their mana defied imagination.
"Did they pick up a Dragon Heart somewhere and eat it?"
"Right? They're putting most mages to shame."
"The problem is they're going to pour all that mana into reinforcing their bodies."
The goblins' speed was anything but ordinary. Without a sturdy body, one could never draw out mana's full efficiency—and the goblins of this forest seemed exceptional in physical ability as well. It didn't feel as though their flesh were being dragged along by vast reserves of mana. Perfect balance and harmony. That was why the pressure radiating from them struck all the harder.
"There appear to be about three hundred of them."
"Yeah."
"Where were they hiding, to appear so suddenly?"
"They were lying in ambush underground."
"Th-they were? I didn't sense a thing."
Paranet, who had privately considered himself ahead of Yujun when it came to sensing danger, scratched his head in embarrassment. Having no hair, the sound came out as a dry scrape.
"If it comes to it, take Manuela and get out of the forest with spatial movement magic."
"Is it truly that dire?"
"Better than dying. I can summon you again if I have to. Manuela, I can't."
"Understood. I shall take full responsibility for the lady."
"The lady? You, drop that 'lady' business—"
Just as Yujun was about to say something to Paranet—
"Paranet! Thank you! I'll be counting on you."
Manuela cut in out of nowhere.
"Yes! Leave her entirely to me!"
"......"
Yujun said nothing. He raised his sword and went to meet the goblins.
Five of them were charging ahead of the rest. Their darker coloring, and the ferocity in their eyes, suggested they might be something like captains. He marked them and held his ground.
"Kiryack!"
"Kruk!"
With the goblins' characteristic phlegmy gurgle, the lithe brown monsters lunged at Yujun.
Shuk!
The blade swept once in a long horizontal arc, and not one of the five escaped being cut cleanly in two.
The strange part was that his level didn't rise.
Yujun's brow twitched.
Even if each one isn't stronger than a cyclops, it shouldn't be this bad.
It wasn't that he had gained no experience at all. The amount was simply so negligible it didn't look as though anything had gone up. That was what felt wrong. The only real difference between a cyclops and a goblin ought to have been raw strength, and in both the quality and quantity of mana, the goblins before him were far superior. He had expected experience close to a cyclops's, if not quite equal, and he had been looking forward to it.
And yet this.
It was the sort of experience one might get from killing a monster only a little stronger than an ordinary goblin. But there were a great many goblins.
I can figure it out after I've killed them all. It won't be too late.
Yujun prepared Chain Lightning. A vast surge of mana poured out, and lightning began to settle around the twenty swords.
Crackle. Fizz. Zzzzt.
At the flashing sparks the goblins looked briefly startled—then charged the party all at once regardless.
High magic resistance, then.
Otherwise they never would have rushed in after seeing Chain Lightning of that magnitude. But Yujun's Chain Lightning was unleashed through his swords, which meant a measure of physical attack power came with it. And when twenty blades bearing the attack power of the Planet Destroyer's Sword brought that physical force to bear, the outcome was obvious.
Zzzzt. Crack-crack!
KWA-AANG—!
The goblins, charging with terrifying momentum, were swallowed all at once by the storm of lightning.
"Kryaaak!"
"Kyak! Kyaak!"
Their thrashing lasted only a moment. The lightning was so overwhelming that it did not take long to snuff out their lives.
"My lord. Did you not say this was dangerous...?"
"I thought it was. Guess I was wrong."
"......"
In truth, the goblins were not weak. It was simply that anything which failed to survive Yujun's first strike could never become a threat to him. The goblins were strong enough in their own right, but they did not have the endurance to withstand his attack power.
The Planet Destroyer's Sword itself carried an attack power of no less than 89,900,000. And that was not the end of it. Once every attack amplification was applied, that figure leapt more than tenfold.
"My lord."
"What now."
"I have resolved that, no matter what crisis may come, I shall never again act rashly."
"What's that supposed to mean, all of a sudden."
"Because my lord will handle everything himself."
"That's a dangerous mindset. What are you going to do when things are actually dangerous?"
"Was this not already a truly dangerous situation? It is merely that my lord proved the more dangerous existence to the goblins. And honestly, even if an ancient dragon were to appear, I cannot imagine my lord losing."
"It's not to that extent."
He had taken down an earth dragon, but counting an earth dragon as a true dragon was a kindness the earth dragon itself ought to be grateful for. The dragons spoken of as true masters of magic were so powerful and so mysterious that, even in this fantasy world, it was openly said they existed only in the imagination.
"My lord, you are far too modest. Did you not slay an ancient dragon before? And if memory serves, your level was remarkably low at the time."
"Strictly speaking, that one wasn't a real dragon either. And it was, quite literally, a single step from death."
Yujun never underestimated dragons. And he believed they truly existed. If even gods walked the world, how could the progenitors of magic be absent? A being that strong could not possibly have gone extinct.
"In any case, it seems there is nothing to worry about in this forest, at least."
"I told you not to let your guard down."
"For now, I understand."
"......"
For now. What was that supposed to mean, for now?
Paranet seemed to trust him less and less, and Yujun found that rather sad.
They kept walking, and before long they had come near the Moonlight-Drinking Pond marked on the map. In all that time they had encountered only a single pack of monsters—quadrupedal beasts, predators by the look of them, weaker than their appearance suggested, and dealt with in an instant. Aside from those, there was nothing at all.
"Did they all run off?"
Perhaps because he had made such a spectacle with Chain Lightning, he could not find a single monster. Even when he sensed a presence, it never once considered approaching him.
"Tsk."
Yujun saw no point in wandering the place in search of monsters. The cyclopes had simply given an unusual amount of experience, and finding monsters was proving harder than he had first expected.
It's all because of those goblins.
If they hadn't shown up, he never would have used Chain Lightning, and monsters drawn by a more moderate commotion would have gathered.
Worthless goblins that don't even give experience.
The more he thought about it, the more his resentment toward them grew.
Don't take it too hard.
His real purpose was the item hidden in the Moonlight-Drinking Pond. Get tangled up in something this petty, and he would fail to obtain even what he could have obtained.
The Moonlight-Drinking Pond was named, quite literally, because the pond held moonlight within it.
"It's a little... no. It's very strange."
"It is."
Yujun and Manuela stared blankly at the pond.
It was broad daylight. And yet the shape of the moon was drawn upon the water. With every ripple the image scattered, then returned to what it had been, over and over.
"This isn't just a pond that happens to hold the moon, is it?"
Yujun stepped closer and examined it. Seeing his own face reflected perfectly, he tilted his head.
"Why isn't the sun reflecting? Manuela. Sunlight isn't reaching this at all, is it?"
"No. It's like the light is blocked only over the pond. It can't get in."
"Strange. Definitely."
"Going into the pond looks far too dangerous."
"We still have to go in. There's nothing around this pond right now."
The Moonlight-Drinking Pond. According to what was marked on the map, this was the place.
"My lord. There is something else strange as well."
"What?"
"The pond is this bright, and yet one cannot see inside it at all."
"You're right."
"Might it be magic, arranged so that only the shape of the moon is visible?"
"By whom?"
"Th... that, I would not know."
"It isn't magic. If it were, I'd have noticed already."
Yujun had considerable skill in magic himself. There was no way he would fail to recognize it on sight.
"Then what is it?"
"Hard to say it occurred naturally, either. I don't know."
"So you're really going in?"
At Manuela's question, Yujun nodded.
"Just in case, Paranet, you go in first."
"...My lord. Surely there is another way."
"There isn't. Going in here is the right call."
"I think not. We cannot know the pond's depth. What if I should have trouble breathing?"
"That's exactly why you have to go first—so we can learn how deep it is. You don't have trouble breathing. You're undead."
"Ah?"
"You keep forgetting you're undead. What's with that?"
"There are no other undead around, are there? Being the only undead is somehow difficult to accept."
"You are a rare sort."
Yujun had spent most of his recent time in the Illusion Realm and the Heavenly Realm, so he had had no occasion to see undead. More than that, undead tended to be comparatively low in level and standing. Searching for one among a gathering of the strongest of the strong was close to impossible. Paranet was a growth-type undead, which was the only reason he had been able to grow this strong in the first place. Undead capable of giving even the highest-ranked players trouble were truly rare.
Which is exactly why raising Paranet is so satisfying.
The strongest undead in the world. And if that undead were his own summon, how proud would he be? It would go beyond pride. It would become another achievement.
Caught under that gaze, Paranet took a step back.
"D-did I do something wrong?"
"No. Get in."
"I receive your command!"
Paranet hesitated no longer and leapt into the pond.
To put it bluntly, Paranet was allowed to die. He would only be unsummoned for a while; given time, Yujun could summon him again. Manuela, on the other hand, was a player. Die once, and that was the end. If she died, he would lose not only her various curses but Goddess's Grace as well. And he had grown rather fond of her. Setting aside whether she was useful or not, he had no wish to lose her so pointlessly.
Honestly, I agonized a long time over whether to bring her here at all... but every time I leave her behind like this, it could be worse in the long run.
In any case, it was a relief that he at least had Paranet. To Yujun, the fellow was the finest summon, the finest bait, and the finest meat shield—no, bone shield—he could ask for.