Chapter 52: Goblin Slayer
Only after I had sufficiently teased the flustered Ellie did we enter the labyrinth.
Was it because all my gear had changed overnight, or was it thanks to the new skill that sharpened my senses?
The air on the labyrinth floor was always pleasant, set as it was in the Great Forest, but today, it felt even more refreshing.
“Sniff sniff.”
“…I don’t have a smell like you, Jonah.”
“That makes me sound like a pervert. Besides, I wasn’t smelling Miss Lydia!”
I was simply taking in the scent of the forest—a scent surprisingly hard to catch in Pangrave, which had been a city since its establishment.
Lydia dismissed my response with a nod and then asked,
“By the way, are you sure you don’t need to visit the temple? You mentioned receiving a blessing. Even if you don’t plan to become a priest, I heard that those who are blessed receive a little subsidy from the temple.”
“But the subsidy varies depending on the blessing received. What I got only improves how I smell, so it’s not a high-ranking blessing. I don’t really want to get involved with the temple over such a small subsidy.”
“Jonah, why do you avoid the temple so… No, never mind.”
Lydia, who had started to say something, then shook her head vigorously. Only after slapping her own cheeks did she continue speaking.
“So? How far are we going today? Still aiming for the Iron Wolves?”
“No. This time, it’s the Giant Mantis. I’d also like to try challenging the Hobgoblin if possible.”
“…Won’t that be dangerous? I know you’ve got new equipment, but your skills haven’t improved that much.”
“Well, I feel like I can do it.”
I shrugged my shoulders and grinned.
“I told you, didn’t I? That I had an awakening moment. I’ll show you what it was today.”
“…Well, okay. It won’t be dangerous since I’m here. Whatever you’re doing, just make sure you don’t stray out of my sight.”
“Okay!”
I smiled as I pulled a map from my bosom. After proving several times that I could navigate without Lydia’s help, she had finally relinquished the map of the first floor to me.
Unlike before, when I had merely followed Lydia, this time I was leading the way through the complex paths of the Great Forest.
Suddenly, an odd feeling of unease washed over me, and I stopped to concentrate.
A faint stench tickled my nose. I turned towards the source of the smell and spotted a clumsily hidden goblin trap.
The monster was hiding behind a nearby tree.
…Now, with my improved vision, even objects at a considerable distance appeared clear, as if they were right in front of me.
The ability to move silently, and what accompanied it, was not a matter of strength, agile reflexes, or even a hint of mana.
It was about senses.
More than the basic five—sight, taste, touch, smell, and hearing—this included balance, intuition, and even the sense for mana manipulation.
Most abilities that could be considered senses had developed to a groundbreaking level.
Just as muscle training builds strength, I had acquired these senses in an instant, a process that would normally have taken years.
However, I hadn’t realized it would be this remarkable.
With a sly smile, I drew my unicorn dagger and silently moved towards the hiding goblin with deliberate slowness.
Lydia gasped from behind, but it probably wasn’t anything important. I needed to focus, so I brushed it off.
One step followed another. I concentrated on the angle at which my feet struck the ground, the force they carried, how to control my breathing, and where the blind spots in a goblin’s field of vision lay.
My mind buzzed with calculations as I moved.
Thus, employing all my senses, I had minimized the traces I left behind.
Before I realized it, I was standing behind the goblin.
Despite traversing a grassy area that would typically cause rustling, the creature hadn’t detected my presence.
It glanced over at Lydia, who was hidden beyond the trees, and began to chuckle silently, its face alight with anticipation.
The shock on its grotesquely ugly face was fleeting. I stabbed it from behind with the dagger I had drawn earlier.
My target was its lungs.
Pshook.
“…Huh?”
“Go, b?”
The dagger plunged into the goblin’s flesh as easily as slicing through cake.
Goblins weren’t particularly robust, and they could be pierced if you exerted enough force… but still, they had muscles and fat, didn’t they?
I hadn’t expected it to penetrate without any resistance.
The goblin, too, seemed startled by the pure white blade suddenly protruding from its chest, freezing in surprise.
Well, the stealth effect was as reliable as one would expect from a 4-star skill, so now it was time to finish off the goblin…
Thud.
“?”
I had pulled out the dagger, intending to stab it into the creature’s neck next, but the creature collapsed, its head hitting the ground with a thud, faster than I could act.
Upon closer inspection, it was already dead, its face turned an eerie black.
“…Poison?”
It was perplexing; I hadn’t applied anything to the dagger. Even the spot I had stabbed wasn’t the heart, which was protected by bones, but the lungs. So, it shouldn’t have died this quickly.
There was only one possible explanation.
“You really are a cursed sword, aren’t you?”
Despite being deeply embedded, the dagger didn’t have a single drop of blood on it. It vibrated faintly.
Vwoong!
The reaction was either disgust from absorbing the blood of a non-virgin, or it was denying my words, possessing an ego of its own.
“No, that’s not it. She mentioned it reacts to evil as well, didn’t she?”
Of course, the monsters of the labyrinth died, but they were repeatedly reborn in the random space-time of the labyrinth.
However, this did not mean they were truly reborn with new bodies. More accurately, it was akin to reconstruction.
Essentially, their baseline state was the condition they were in when they first became trapped in the labyrinth.
While living in the labyrinth, they aged, grew, and managed to live reasonably well.
But upon death and rebirth, they were reset to their initial state when first trapped in the labyrinth, including their memories.
This reset also included the status of their virginity.
In this regard, unlike the hobgoblins, who had formed a tribe and carved out their own society, the wandering goblins were pitiable beta females driven mad by their inability to find a mate.
They lacked strength, a partner, and were relatively lower in intelligence.
These wandering goblins were doomed to live as virgins for life unless they were fortunate enough to capture an incompetent adventurer.
…I’d rather not dwell on the state of these creatures’ hymens, but that was their setting.
To summarize, the unicorn dagger reacted not because she wasn’t a virgin but because she was evil…Originally, monsters were not so much evil as they were a race consumed by madness.
Undead or demons, sure, you could say they’re obviously evil, but goblins…
“Ah.”
Thinking of goblins as inherently evil brought something to mind.
Although it was a discarded setting now, I had once created a scenario where goblins, before becoming monsters, claimed themselves to be a minor spirit race.
Originally, the name “goblin” was assigned by other races due to their distinct gob-gob speaking manner and unique vocal organs.
Among themselves, they insisted they were minor spirits—a needless detail I decided to omit from the novel and simply store away in my mind.
“Was that detail actually applied?”
I couldn’t find any other explanation that made sense.
I would need to experiment with other races that had their own backstories to understand the details fully, but for now, it wasn’t necessary to delve too deeply.
What mattered was that the special attack of the unicorn dagger was effective against goblins.
That was sufficient.
I quickly pierced the heart, retrieved the magic stone, and then returned to Lydia.
“Miss Lydia! Miss Lydia! How was my stealth? Did I lack anything? Goblins are quite simple-minded, so they’re easily deceived, but it might not be the same with other races.”
“…No.”
“What?”
Lydia wore the puzzled expression of someone who had just learned that a moon bear was not a moon, a kiwi bird was not a kiwi, and Perry was actually the platypus.
“If I hadn’t been watching closely, I wouldn’t have noticed you at all. It would be a different story if someone cranked up their aura to the maximum… but who walks around leaking their aura constantly?”
“Oh? And you mentioned I smelled nice, too. Do you think I might get caught because of that scent? I even considered asking for a refund from the goddess if that were the case.”
“Let’s set aside your depiction of the goddess as if she were a local grocery store owner; the scent wasn’t an issue. The moment you, Jonah, made up your mind, the smell vanished completely.”
“My goodness.”
That made sense. If it was possible to mask one’s natural body odor with a pleasant fragrance, then surely, it should be feasible to eliminate the body odor entirely.
Relieved after the trouble of drawing a 4-star skill, I was glad it wouldn’t be rendered useless by a 1-star power.
As I internally sighed with relief, Lydia asked, her expression stiffer than usual.
“What exactly were you caught doing by Senior Ellie that you learned such desperate stealth techniques? You called it an awakening, but this isn’t something you learn overnight.”
“What did I get caught doing, you ask? Well, I can tell you, but you can’t go around talking about it, okay?”
“Yep. I’ll keep it a secret.”
Lydia made a zipping motion over her mouth. Judging by her intensely serious gaze, she seemed more curious about the nature of the enlightenment than the incident itself.
…I felt a bit guilty now. What I was about to show her wasn’t what Lydia was imagining.
I scurried over and stood in front of Lydia. Facing her with a serious expression, I formed a ‘V’ with both hands.
“Huh?”
Then, I rolled my eyes up and stuck out my tongue through my slightly parted lips.
“Ah-heh-”
It was a perfect ahegao double peace.
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