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[ Level Up! Check Your Status! ]

[ Level Up! Check Your Status! ]

[ Level Up! Check Your Status! ]

“Ahahaha!! This place is a goldmine!!”

This is unbelievable experience points, like pure honey.

I invested all 3 points I gained from leveling up into strength.

‘Just took down one Goblin Den and I’m at level 3!?’

It makes sense since there were quite a few Goblins.

“But still, isn’t this too sweet!?”

Honestly, I was wondering if it was really okay to go for round two.

If asked to do the same thing again, I wouldn’t hesitate for a second to shout ‘Yes!’

But sadly, this world isn’t a game, and there’s no concept of respawning.

Monsters are born, but that’s not respawning, nor do they return to the same place.

After some time since the Ninja Spike started hunting, just as the cries of Goblins began to fade—

“Ugh. That was a good meal.”

Now I just need to slice off some Goblin Ears and head back.

-Grrr.

“…I’m hungry.”

My body was crying out for food.

I realized I hadn’t eaten anything since my possession.

I had been moving around, back and forth in the forest, hunting without eating anything until lunch, so I was bound to be hungry.

-Grrr.

But man, I was really hungry.

As I started cutting Goblin Ears one by one and putting them into my inventory—

“…Can I eat this?”

What’s in front of me is at least some meat, wouldn’t it taste good if I cook it?

In the story, Goblin meat isn’t eaten, but some monster meats are so delicious they become a local specialty.

“But what if I get a stomach ache?”

Honestly, the appearance looks off-putting, and it seems pretty unsanitary.

I wondered if there was anyone who could eat it instead of me as a test.

As I pondered that—

-Ki… Kieeek…

“Huh?”

From the far back of the Goblin’s trail, I heard a whimper, and lifting my head revealed a Goblin barely clinging to life.

The Goblin was trembling, trying hard to get up, and it caught my attention.

‘That’s it!’

I stood up and walked toward the Goblin.

-Ki, Kieeek!!

As I approached the Goblin, I could see it trying to scramble backward in surprise.

‘What’s with you?’

Seeing the Goblin frightened made it seem like I looked pretty scary.

But surprisingly, this time I hadn’t swung my sword, so I was all tidy with no blood on my clothes, yet I still couldn’t understand why it was scared.

‘Anyway, that’s not important right now.’

I grabbed the Goblin’s head and held out a Goblin Ear I was holding in one hand.

“Hey, try this.”

It’s not a person, but with such a good test subject right in front of me, I had no reason to refuse.

-Kieek!!!

At that, the Goblin was thrashing its whole body.

“Oh wow. This little guy sure is picky at the dining table.”

It’s been said that kids who don’t listen should be given a taste of the rod, so I immediately prepared a prescription for that.

-Smack!

-Kieek!

I punched its head, and the Goblin finally calmed down.

It looked like it was on the brink of death, but since it was still alive, that was fine.

“Here. Give it a try. Try try.”

“This is a nutritious dish that’s good for your health. It’s all prepared just for you.”

What my parents always say.

I borrowed that for a moment.

Even after saying all that, the Goblin still wouldn’t even think about eating, so I shoved it into its mouth.

-Uuurggh!

Then, shortly after placing it in, the Goblin immediately spit it out.

“Ew, yuck.”

Seems like it didn’t taste very good.

With that, it was proven that Goblin Ears weren’t fit for eating.

“Struggling, huh? Just hang in there a little longer. I’ll send you over to your friends.”

Even when I pulled out my sword right in front of it, the little guy didn’t resist at all.

I then swiftly decapitated the Goblin.

“Whew~ That was tough.”

All I really did was move around and spread out Ninja Spikes, but isn’t it said that even just playing can be tiring?

It’s just like that.

Counting the number of Goblin Ears while picking up the Ninja Spikes, I opened my inventory.

“19 pieces.”

I caught exactly 10 Goblins.

Each one has two ears, so that’s 20, but since I fed one, it’s down to 19.

If I recall correctly, it was said that a Goblin has 2 ears, which means one ear stands for 1 unit.

“With 19 units, I should be able to last until tomorrow.”

Since I wasn’t sure about the market price, I couldn’t make a definite call.

“I don’t know. If I run short, I’ll just eat and crash on the street.”

Or I could sneak into the Academy and sleep in the dormitory bed.

Having leveled up and made some money, I felt quite good.

I finished tidying up and was in a good mood heading back to the Adventurer’s Guild.

But then…

“Which way is it?”

Is there a barrier set up in this forest?

Every time I enter, I get lost!

Phew… Good thing I’m not a brainless fool; if I had anger management issues, I would’ve burned this whole forest to the ground.

“Ugh. By the time I get there, it’ll be dinner time.”

At this rate, I should just walk.

Thinking that, I took a step forward again.

-Screeeech!!

Somewhere in the forest, a scream echoed.

‘Is that a person?’

What’s a person doing in this forest?

But then again, it’s not too strange when I think about it.

After all, I came here myself, all set to catch Goblins and ended up lost.

After going back and forth so many times today, it might seem odd that I got lost, but in a place where there’s no map and no paths, how could you not lose your way?

Everywhere I look, it all looks the same.

If this were Earth, just pulling up a map app would do the trick.

So, hearing a person scream is actually a welcome situation!

“I should go ask for directions~”

Whether the person yells is an adventurer or just a villager, whoever it is should know the way better than I do, so I should ask them to help me out.

*

“Yawn~”

A man standing near a cart let out a long yawn.

“Hey. Keep your guard up.”

“There shouldn’t be any people nearby anyway, so what?”

“If we get caught, we’re the ones who will be in trouble, you know?”

“The employer said this road doesn’t get much traffic, so we’ve nothing to worry about. And if we do get caught, it’s the employer’s fault for giving us false info, not ours.”

If things go wrong, these mercenaries can turn on their employer at any time.

That’s how mercenaries operate; unlike adventurers, they take on work as long as they’re paid.

There’s no separate mercenary guild—it’s just people signing up for help based on the reward offered.

So, they’re the kind of people who would turn their backs the moment they believe it might cost them.

“Heh heh. That’s a fair point.”

The two mercenaries were tasked with escorting a cart.

Specifically, it was the cart with a cage attached to the back.

Since they had been riding since morning, they decided to stop in this quiet forest to give the horses a rest.

Even though it was a quiet forest, the reason the two men remained vigilant was that this cart carried slaves.

Monsters? The only monsters you find at the forest entrance are Goblins.

Unless a large group of them came out of their den, the two men should be more than equipped to handle the situation.

What they were actually fearful of was people.

Due to the Empire’s ban on slavery, being caught in a situation like this would earn a bounty on both them and their employer.

That’s why the employer chose to hire mercenaries instead of adventurers.

“By the way, it’s not just Beastmen; there are people as well. The employer is a pretty bad guy, right?”

“We are accomplices in this.”

The employer was a noble of considerable rank.

That’s how he could discreetly collect slaves.

“What’s the problem? As long as we get paid, we’re good.”

“Then shall we see about bumping up our bonus, too?”

One man approached the cage.

“Oh, are you going to do it now?”

“When else would we do it? We’ll be arriving soon.”

“Hehehe. Then let me pick out a pretty one to have a taste.”

As the man opened the cage door, beautiful female slaves in lovely clothes ran away into the corners, trying to escape from the man.

“Still, since they’re merchandise, we shouldn’t touch the virgin ones. Hey you, come here!”

The man pointed at a girl huddled in the far corner, who trembled and burrowed deeper into the corner.

“If you’re told to come, then come without being annoying.”

The man roughly grabbed the girl’s hair.

“Ahhh!!”

“I thought we were supposed to be guarding people, but have I just been guarding a bunch of dolphins all this time?”

The girl being dragged by the man wanted to run, but with shackles on her hands and feet, she couldn’t even properly walk, let alone run.

“Please, save me!!!”

“No matter how loudly you scream, who’s gonna come to help you? If the employer sent you here, he obviously didn’t intend for anyone to rescue you.”

-Smack!

“Oof!”

At that moment, someone shoved the man from behind.

Caught off guard, he hit the ground and scrambled to look back.

“Hah—whoever you are, since you want to eat, I’ll feed you first!”

The man threw the girl he was holding back into the cage and grabbed the head of the girl who had pushed him just moments before.

“Ugh!”

The strange thing was that the girl had perked ears on her head and a tail tucked behind her.

“I’ve been curious about the taste of a Beastman, so I guess I’ll have to satisfy my curiosity.”

“You bastard, I’ll kill you.”

“Trying to look scary with that pretty face won’t faze me at all.”

The man placed his hand on the Beastman girl’s rear.

“Oh, not bad!”

“Ugh….”

“Who, who are you!”

Just as he was ready to have some fun, a commotion broke out from behind, causing the man to turn around in annoyance.

Then, he saw a dark-haired man with red eyes standing before him.

“Do you happen to know the way to the Empire?”

“I don’t know where you came from, but consider yourself unlucky for having seen me.”

“No, I’m asking for directions.”

“Die!!!”

Another man had already entered a combat stance from behind.

Watching the scene, the man thought someone else would handle it and turned his gaze back to the Beastman girl.

“Arrgh!”

The groans coming from behind were the voice he recognized.

Wondering what had happened, he turned around quickly.

Standing before him was the very man he had seen moments ago.

“Do you happen to know the way to the Empire?”

Behind him lay the body of his decapitated partner sprawled across the ground.

*

What the hell are these guys doing?

I just asked for directions, and they pulled out their swords right away.

Is this what they mean by having anger management issues?

I did kill one by mistake, but I felt no guilt for my first murder.

‘If I don’t kill them, I’ll be the one dying, so where’s the guilt in that?’

Everyone places themselves first.

Even if I had just charged in with my fists, I would’ve pulverized their face halfway into oblivion, but with a sword in hand, I had no choice but to kill.

Therefore, this is merely self-defense.

Anyway, I killed one, but since there was still one more left, I was fine.

I walked over to the remaining man and stood right in front of him.

“Do you happen to know the way to the Empire?”

I couldn’t understand why telling me where the way is would be such a big deal if I was asking so politely.

The man before me was already reaching for his sword, likely intending to do to me what he did to the corpse behind him.

Seeing that, I couldn’t help but scowl.

“No kindness shown, huh? I’m lost here! Aren’t you supposed to help out? Huh?”

“What are you talking about!!”

With a swoosh, the sword’s blade moved from right to left.

“Are you guys twins? How come your attack patterns are identical?”

They may look different, but their attacks seemed just like the guy I just killed, making me think I was up against identical twins.

Of course, I quickly dodged.

Though I thought about finishing this one off too—

“The more I think, the more annoying it gets.”

-Smack!

My fist connected with the man’s face.

Thudd, he fell to the ground, landing on his butt and looking up at me.

“I can’t even count how many times I’ve gotten lost in this damn forest, and on top of that, I run into someone unfriendly, and it’s frustrating as hell?”

“Please, spare me! I’ll give you all the money I have!”

“You’ll give me all your money?”

“Y-Yeah!”

Oh… I thought he was just a lowlife, but—

Isn’t that a Golden Goblin!?

 

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