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Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: Teottry
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Roland wasn’t the only one the system recognized as a party member. Every time Hendricks on the opposite side, and the four mercenaries in the second rank swung their swords, I gained experience points.
Though the experience points from a single goblin weren’t much, they accumulated quickly thanks to their sheer numbers.
As expected, actual combat was more effective than training, which incurred an experience penalty. The downside was that I had to risk my life.
I soon lost the luxury of checking my experience gains.
“Kieeek—!”
Though I had managed to avoid the initial goblin onslaught thanks to some preparations, as the goblins swarmed us from all sides, it became increasingly difficult.
While I was momentarily distracted, a goblin lunged at me. I kicked it away, then twisted my body and swung my sword diagonally. I didn’t need to use much force.
Goblins were monsters that even a strong adult could kill with a club. Considering their overwhelming numbers, it was more important to conserve my energy.
Fiore’s clean and efficient swordsmanship flashed through my mind. That was the kind of swordsmanship I needed now.
“Keek—?”
A long, thin line appeared on the side of the goblin that had used its comrade as a shield to attack my flank. Blood spurted out, followed by its entrails. The goblin collapsed like a puppet with its strings cut.
It stared at its wound, then at my already sheathed sword, with an expression of disbelief before collapsing. Fiore’s swordsmanship was incredibly light and fast.
I couldn’t relax yet. Another goblin charged at me, tackling me low. It was so small, barely reaching my waist, and it had attacked from my blind spot, so I reacted too late.
I was about to kick it away, but changed my mind and raised my knee instead. The goblin, which had been grinning, revealing its yellowed teeth, received a knee to the face. I felt its flesh, muscle, and even bone crumple beneath my knee.
Another goblin lunged at me. I thrust my sword forward, or rather, I simply placed it in the goblin’s path.
“Kieee—!”
The goblin tried to stop, but its momentum carried it forward.
Thud-
My sword pierced through the goblin’s flesh and muscle like a knife through tofu. I didn’t have time to dwell on the gruesome sensation as I quickly retrieved my sword. Another goblin was already charging at me.
“They just keep coming.”
I stomped on the face of the goblin I had kneed. It twitched beneath my foot, then went limp.
I took the opportunity to assess the situation. The knight and the mercenaries were cutting down goblins like machines.
The problem was their numbers.
Our initial charge had stalled. We could hold them off for now thanks to our superior skills, but we would run out of stamina before we could kill them all.
We were also surrounded. With me, Hendricks, and Roland blocked at the front, some goblins had scaled the walls and attacked from behind. The mercenaries in the second rank had to fight back-to-back, defending against attacks from both front and rear.
The situation was unfavorable.
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“Sir Roland! We’re reaching our limit!”
Hendricks shouted as he smashed a goblin with his spiked gauntlet.
“Hang in there! We need to get inside that building!”
“Damn it! The path is widening! We’ll be completely surrounded before we reach the building!”
Another mercenary added,
“There’s no guarantee that the environment inside will be any better!”
“Do you have a better plan?”
At Roland’s question, the mercenaries fell silent. Hendricks spoke again.
“So, what do you suggest? We just stay here and die?”
“I’ll clear a path.”
“Sir Roland!”
Before anyone could stop him, Roland broke formation and charged into the seemingly endless wave of goblins. It looked like suicide. The goblins thought so too.
“Kihet!”
The goblins at the front, licking their lips, leaped at Roland before the others.
However,
A flash of light cut between Roland and the goblins. Three goblin heads flew through the air simultaneously.
And that was just the beginning.
With every flash of Roland’s sword, two or three goblins fell. His swordsmanship was so clean and efficient that it made slaughtering these monstrous creatures look like child’s play.
This was a true knight, a weapon of war.
“Damn, I would have been in trouble if I had underestimated this country bumpkin knight.”
Hendricks, now with some breathing room, joked. I couldn’t share his lightheartedness. The stronger Roland was, the easier it would be to clear the ancient ruins, but that was precisely the problem.
‘He’s at least as strong as Fiore.’
His swordsmanship was on par with Fiore’s, but he possessed a calmness she lacked. And he was surrounded by a seemingly endless wave of goblins!
If Roland was hiding his true strength, the situation was even more dire. I had planned to use the goblins to wear him down, but it seemed I needed to change my approach.
The rapidly increasing experience points were tempting, but I couldn’t lose sight of my priorities.
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“Just a little further! We’re almost there!”
Roland single-handedly carved a path through the sea of goblins. We quickly followed. We finally reached the structure, but there was a problem.
“Huff… huff… damn it. Why are there so many stairs?”
Up close, the structure was so tall that we had to crane our necks to see the entrance. Endless stairs, reminiscent of a pyramid, led to the top.
“Stop complaining and follow me!”
Roland marched ahead without waiting for a reply. We had no choice but to follow.
“Damn it.”
We somehow managed to climb the stairs and enter the building, only to be greeted by massive pillars and, between them, another horde of goblins. They grinned, revealing their yellowed teeth.
“Kekekeke—!”
Their cackles echoed through the building like a chorus. The goblins who had followed us took up positions behind us, and we were surrounded once more. It seemed we had walked into a trap.
We formed a circle, backs together, and watched the goblins warily. Fortunately, they didn’t attack immediately. They seemed wary of Roland.
“Damn it! Out of the frying pan and into the fire!”
“We shouldn’t have taken this job!”
“We’re dead!”
“How are you going to compensate us for this, Sir Roland?!”
The mercenaries’ resentment poured out on Roland, who had tricked them into coming here. Roland, who had single-handedly carved a path through the horde, and was only slightly out of breath, chuckled.
“You were all excited when you heard it was an ancient ruin, and now you’re blaming me? Typical mercenaries.”
“You dishonorable bastard—!”
“How dare a mere mercenary question my honor? What? Since you’re going to die anyway, you want to die by my hand? Well, I can grant you that wish.”
Roland’s sharp reaction suggested that he was also feeling the pressure.
It was understandable. He had barely entered the ancient ruins and was already facing a life-or-death situation. Even if they managed to kill all these goblins, there was no guarantee that the danger was over.
“Does everyone see that?”
I interjected. They couldn’t afford to be divided. Not yet.
I pointed towards a hole in the wall. It was located in a shadowy corner, cast by the sunlight streaming through the entrance and the ceiling, too high for the short goblins to reach. It was large enough for a person to enter.
“Are you suggesting we go through there? We don’t know how big the space inside is, or if it’s even open.”
Hendricks scoffed. With their lives on the line, he no longer felt the need to be respectful.
“I don’t know if it’s open, but judging by the fact that I can’t see the end, I’d say it’s quite spacious.”
“You can see that from here?”
“My eyesight is quite good. Isn’t that right, Sir Roland?”
Roland and I had lived in the same manor for years. We had spent more time together than with our own families. He knew I had good eyesight. He looked at me with a strange expression.
“Master Allen’s eyesight is as good as a plains barbarian.”
“What? You think so too, Sir Roland? You believe this absurd story?”
“It would give us a significant tactical advantage. Even if the goblins follow us, we can easily hold them off. It would give us some breathing room.”
“Damn it. But how are we supposed to get up there…!”
“I think that would work.”
Following my gaze, Hendricks looked at the windlass attached to his waist, then shook his head.
“This is a valuable piece of equipment. No way!”
“More valuable than your life?”
“There’s no hook!”
“We don’t need a hook. I’ll go up first and pull you up.”
“W-Wait…!”
Roland snatched the windlass from Hendricks and kicked off the ground. The goblins, who had been hesitant, resumed their attack. Hendricks had no time to complain as he swung his sword.
I had been prepared and quickly followed Roland. The others followed suit. Roland cleared a path again. This time, the distance was short.
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Reaching the hole, Roland jumped, kicked off the wall near the L-shaped entrance, and reached for the opening. He slipped inside like a squirrel disappearing into its nest. Almost immediately, the rope from the windlass dropped down.
“Me first, damn it!”
Just then, Hendricks, who had been behind me, pushed me aside and grabbed the rope. The other mercenaries followed suit. Three mercenaries were now hanging from a rather thin rope.
The remaining two mercenaries and I faced the approaching goblins. The two mercenaries shouted at their comrades hanging from the rope.
“Hey, you bastards!”
“Fuck you! This is my rope! I have priority!”
“Damn it…!”
I stepped back, unnoticed, and retrieved a rope with a hook from my backpack. By the time they noticed me, I had already secured the hook to the opening and was climbing the rope.
“He had a rope!?”
I ignored them and continued climbing. The mercenaries, realizing they had no time to waste, followed suit.
“Kieeek!!”
The goblins, seeing their prey escape, went berserk. They charged at us recklessly.
“Hurry! Climb faster!”
“Damn it! Stop pushing! The rope’s shaking!”
The mercenaries at the top clung to the rope for dear life, while those below tried to climb over their comrades, desperate to escape the goblins. It was chaos.
The goblins also joined the fray, jumping and trying to grab at the mercenaries’ clothes. Some even managed to latch onto the rope and climb after us.
I was fast and reached the hole before Hendricks, who had gone ahead of me. Roland, holding the rope, looked at me.
His gaze was strikingly similar to the look he had given me that night at the west gate of Quaran.
The timing was too perfect to be a coincidence. He had produced the rope as if he had known this would happen. I pretended not to notice and offered my hand to the mercenary behind me.
“Pull me up! Quickly!”
With more people inside the hole than on the rope, we started pulling people up by the rope itself. However, not everyone could make it.
“Aaack! Help me!!!”
“Jackson!!”
The last mercenary, Jackson, screamed. Countless goblins clung to his legs, almost pulling him back down.
“Get out of the way.”
Roland swung his sword, aiming for the rope, which was bent at a 90-degree angle at the entrance of the hole. His swift strike cleanly severed the thick rope.
“Uh, uh…!”
The world seemed to slow down. The severed rope snaked through the air, and Jackson’s face, as he flailed helplessly in mid-air, filled my vision. His eyes darted around wildly, like a ship caught in a violent storm.
“Aaack!!”
Jackson’s scream echoed through the building as he fell amongst the goblins. The goblins swarmed him, eager for a piece of flesh, and he quickly disappeared beneath them.
His screams didn’t last long. All that remained were the goblins’ triumphant cries.
“Kieeee!!”
We stared at Roland in stunned silence. Roland calmly sheathed his sword, as if nothing had happened.
“Sir! What have you done?!”
Hendricks, the leader of the mercenaries, finally roared. Roland simply chuckled.
“I just prevented the goblins from climbing up the rope.”
“Bullshit! You could have saved Jackson!”
“What if the goblins had climbed up with him? What if we had wasted any more time? We would have been surrounded again.”
“That’s just speculation!”
“How funny. If you cared so much about your comrade, you should have yielded your place. Don’t you agree?”
“…!”
Roland smirked at the silenced mercenaries, then turned to me, his eyes narrowed in suspicion.
“Master Allen. When did you prepare that rope with a hook?”
“Hehe, it’s an ancient ruin. I had to be prepared for any danger. The rope was just one of my preparations.”
I opened my backpack proudly. It was filled with enough dried food and firewood for a week, medicinal herbs, a whetstone, oil, and even spare equipment.
“How is a knight’s son more prepared than us?”
“This isn’t being prepared. This is excessive.”
Even the mercenaries, who had been suppressing their anger, were dumbfounded by my excessive preparations. They looked at me as if I were a clueless, spoiled brat. Then, one of them gasped.
“Ach! What’s that smell?”
The other mercenaries sniffed the air, and a series of sneezes followed. I glanced down at my backpack and smiled sheepishly.
“I seem to have spilled some pepper.”
“That expensive stuff? And that much…?”
I shrugged.
“I can’t eat meat without pepper.”
“No wonder the goblins were avoiding you.”
Cave goblins had poor eyesight, but their hearing and sense of smell were highly developed. Their sense of smell, in particular, was said to be comparable to a dog’s. That’s why they had avoided me.
I knew this from my past life memories. However, I feigned surprise.
“Goblins don’t like pepper?”
“They’re sensitive to smells, and they especially hate pepper.”
“And you, knowing that, didn’t prepare for it when facing goblins?”
At my reproachful tone, the mercenaries looked even more dumbfounded.
“You really are a clueless little lord, aren’t you? Who would waste pepper, worth its weight in gold, on goblins that are barely worth anything?”
“Ah…”
The mercenaries shook their heads and clicked their tongues. Thanks to my self-sacrifice, the tense atmosphere had eased somewhat.
I smiled awkwardly and glanced at Roland. His gaze, still fixed on me, hadn’t changed.
As if he didn’t believe a word I said—
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So seems like Roland plotting something here 🤔 even I craving for more chaps here bud 😂
