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Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: Yuziro
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“Gooooooooo!”
The king’s roar made the ground tremble slightly.
A sinister rage underlaid the beast’s cry.
Had other monsters of his kind been nearby, they would have trembled and bowed their heads.
Born a king of his species, raised to rule, this was the historic beginning of his reign.
He had led a group of young males and females from his tribe and successfully established a new settlement.
Offspring were being produced, and the tribe was on the verge of expansion.
At least, that’s what he had thought until recently.
Oooooh! Gooooooooo!
He slammed his fist against a rock in a frenzy.
The pain in his arm was less bothersome than the scent that was now creeping into his nostrils.
It was the scent of humans.
The scent of humans… the beings known as their natural enemies.
As a predator, the king instinctively knew.
This human scent hadn’t drifted in by chance.
This thick, sinister smell… was clearly the scent of a hunting party.
Hunting?
They dared to try and hunt my tribe?
And me, who was on the path to becoming king?
The king’s red eyes gleamed.
He would show them, as a king, the price of their recklessness in challenging him.
Oooooh!
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Among monsters, goblins were the cockroaches of the monster world.
They were considered one of the weakest and most common monsters.
Stronger than the average adult woman, but weaker than the average adult man.
Lacking sharp claws or teeth to defend against predators.
Their size was only about half that of a human, so their combat ability wasn’t high.
They fit all the criteria for being one of the easiest monsters for seasoned adventurers to handle.
Despite this, what made goblins a threat to humans was their use of weapons and their pack mentality.
Well aware of their own weakness, they never fought alone and strategically used weapons suitable for their prey.
For monsters, goblins were quite intelligent.
A lesser version of humans, one might say.
But being a lesser version of humans also meant… they could never defeat humans, their superior counterparts.
“Good. This is easy.”
In the pitch-black forest,
I watched the men working their way through the dense undergrowth in low stances, and nodded with satisfaction.
Wow.
As expected of mountain folk, they moved through the forest with such ease.
Perhaps because most of them were hunters.
They carried out the tasks efficiently with just a few instructions.
‘Goblins are nothing if you know how to deal with them.’
People tended to be overly frightened of monsters, but in reality, they weren’t that difficult.
Just teaching these hunters the proper techniques would allow them to handle any future encounters on their own.
Of course, taking on an entire goblin settlement like this wasn’t easy, unlike dealing with a small group.
In that sense, hiring me was a stroke of luck for them.
During my time as an adventurer specializing in monster subjugation, I had considerable experience dealing with goblin settlements.
“Mr. Iyer, we’ve finished this section.”
“Excellent. Let’s move on to the next.”
At the young man’s whispered report, I nodded in satisfaction.
I then approached the area where he had just been working and carefully knelt down.
Brushing aside the undergrowth, I found a palm-sized, square wooden plank secured firmly with thin rope near the tree root where I had sprayed the faint fluorescent dye.
Looking down at it, I smiled with satisfaction.
“What’s this?”
The villagers’ eyes focused on the palm-sized wooden plank in the young man’s hand.
It was probably a familiar object to them.
“As you can see, these are simple traps that can be set on the ground. They’re easy to activate, requiring only minimal securing without any additional work.”
“But adventurer… isn’t this a bit small?”
At the question from one of the strong men, Iyer nodded.
As he had pointed out, the trap was about the size of an adult man’s palm, quite small.
Picking up a small piece of wood from the ground, he placed it on top of the trap.
“This is how it activates… like this.”
Iyer applied a little pressure, and nine spikes sprang out from the bottom of the trap with a thwack, embedding themselves deeply into the piece of wood.
“Like this… I’m sure you understand just by looking. Since you’re all skilled mountain hunters and have handled these kinds of things before, I won’t explain further. Think of it as a simplified version of what you already know.”
“We’re going to attack the goblins’ feet with this?”
“That’s right. Goblins have small bodies, so their feet aren’t that big compared to other small animals.”
Moreover, their muscle density was low, so even these small spikes would easily penetrate.
Truly creatures worthy of being called the lowest tier of monsters.
“Normally, a proper adventurer party would directly confront the patrol to reduce their numbers, but we’re not doing that this time. We’re going to incapacitate them with these.”
Taking out two small containers from my bag, I held up the wooden plank and explained their task as simply as possible.
Find the trees marked with dye by Jacques and I, and set these simple traps.
Apply the adhesive from this container to the top and bottom of the traps, and then apply the poison to the currently hidden spikes.
It was a poison that caused minor muscle spasms.
If it entered their bodies through the spikes, it would turn the goblins into cripples for a while.
“Simpler than you thought, right?”
The village men nodded.
“The places where the dye is sprayed are the patrol routes that Jacques and I have identified. Their patrol pattern is four teams on a two-shift rotation. We’ll infiltrate the area near the settlement at night, set the traps, incapacitate a certain number of patrols, and then attack the settlement.”
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“Huh?”
Jacques, who was diligently setting traps with the villagers in a different area from Iyer, approached a young man who was tilting his head after looking inside the bag Iyer had given him.
“What’s wrong?”
“Jacques, look at this. What’s inside…”
The cloth bags they carried were supposed to be filled with simple traps.
However, the bag this young man had received felt significantly different in weight just from lifting it.
Looking inside the open bag, Jacques tilted his head like the young man.
“What is this?”
“Isn’t it rope?”
“I know that… but why is it here?”
The other bags were definitely filled with only simple traps.
Why did this bag contain thick rope?
Iyer hadn’t mentioned anything about rope.
“Do you think the others received it too?”
“I don’t know.”
“What should we do with this?”
They didn’t have time to ask questions while working stealthily.
Once they finished their mission, they had to join Iyer immediately.
The image of Iyer, who was as skilled as a hunter, flashed through Jacques’s mind.
He was an adventurer who dealt with monsters like goblins daily.
There must have been a reason for his actions.
A reason for giving them this bag filled with rope…
Jacques thought so.
“…How much poison do we have left?”
“We should have some left even after setting all the traps.”
“Alright. Then let’s make the most of it.”
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After all the preparations were complete, I hid with the villagers.
One patrol passed, and since the traps were set after that, we were targeting the next patrol.
Finally, the moment we had been waiting for arrived.
Five goblins, armed with clubs and broken swords, were approaching with torches.
I made eye contact with the young villager next to me and gave a small nod of reassurance.
As the goblins passed near the tree I had marked…
Kieeek!
The goblins’ screams rang out.
Since the goblin carrying the torch was unharmed, we could easily see the condition of the others.
Two were panicking, and three had collapsed, clutching their feet.
The three who had fallen were trying to remove the traps stuck to their feet, but the adhesive held them firmly in place.
‘Three out of five isn’t bad.’
Once they experienced the traps, they would be more cautious, making it harder for them to get caught.
In that sense, catching three from the start was a great outcome.
We were targeting three out of the four patrol teams.
Three from each of the three teams meant we had incapacitated close to ten goblins.
‘There are about thirty male goblins capable of fighting and twenty females. If ten are incapacitated, that means we have to deal with about twenty.’
Finishing the calculations in my head, I immediately gestured to the strong men waiting behind.
It was time to gather everyone.
The men, receiving my signal, headed to the designated meeting point.
“Mr. Iyer!”
As we arrived at the low hill we had agreed upon, Jacques greeted us.
“How did it go, Jacques?”
“We’ve set all the traps. The second patrol should have been hit by now. I left the fast runners behind, so once they confirm the third patrol has been hit, they’ll signal us and the people near the settlement.”
“Good. Jacques, there’s something I need you to do. Can you move with these men?”
Jacques nodded with a determined expression.
Calm down, Jacques.
It’s not that difficult.
Just do what you’ve always done.
“Are you going to the settlement, Mr. Iyer?”
I nodded, and Jacques extended his hand.
Looking down at his hand, I extended my own and grasped it firmly.
“Good luck.”
This felt like we were going off to war.
Thinking that, I patted Jacques on the shoulder.
Then, I turned and descended the hill.
As I quickly made my way down, a thought occurred to me…
‘Hmm. Did I overdo it?’
It seemed like I had created an overly serious atmosphere for just taking down some goblins…
But I didn’t want to dampen the spirits of the men who were nervous about their first monster hunt…
“Well, i’ll let them enjoy this tension for now.”
I was a romantic who enjoyed such sentiments, after all.
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