Responding to the Goblin subjugation request, they had been walking through the forest beside the highway for about an hour. An unpleasant scream burst out from the bushes where Set had fired a Water Ball, and twenty Goblins suddenly appeared, completely surrounding Rei.

「An ambush……no, would they really lay an ambush this far into the forest? In that case, I probably just ran into this group of Goblins by pure chance.」

Rei muttered, firmly gripping the Death Scythe. His eyes quickly analysed the surrounding Goblins.

(Two rusted long swords and three similar daggers, while the rest are armed with crude clubs. ……The guild mentioned that Goblins were intelligent enough to use weapons, but for every single one of them to be armed like this? Though I suppose it’s possible that only the slightly smarter Goblins gather in these raiding groups……)

「Hah!」

A Goblin in the back hurled a stone as a preemptive strike. Pouring magic power into the Death Scythe, Rei swung the massive blade, cleanly slicing the stone in half mid-air. The wide swing didn’t stop there, and the massive, 1m thick tree trunks surrounding the group were also sheared clean through in a single strike.

He genuinely hadn’t expected the blade to slice through tree trunks of that thickness so effortlessly. Though he was surprised when the massive trees began to topple over, he immediately shouted to Set to take advantage of the chaos.

「Set, take out the Goblins that get isolated by the falling trees!」
「Gururu~!」

As the massive trees slowly tipped and began crashing down towards the group of Goblins, Rei quickly gathered his thoughts.

(Ultimately, it’s best if I can figure out if there really is a rare species leading them like the receptionist mentioned. I don’t see any obvious candidates here, as a smart leader would probably realise the front lines are too dangerous and hang back.)

「Gyi~! Gyi~!」
「Gyi~!」
「Gigyi~!」

Screeching at each other in a panic, the Goblins hastily split into two groups to evade the falling timber. Quickly assessing the situation, Rei readied the Death Scythe and charged to the right. Taking the cue, Set lunged towards the group on the left.

「Haah!」

As the trees suddenly crashed down around them, the Goblins were thrown into absolute confusion. Rei charged into their ranks, wielding the massive scythe with reckless abandon. The magical blade sliced cleanly through the falling branches and thick trunks without any resistance whatsoever. Naturally, the Goblins had absolutely no way to block it. Rei’s huge scythe sheared effortlessly through their bodies, severing limbs and heads without slowing down in the slightest.

One strike. Most of the Goblins in Rei’s immediate vicinity were killed instantly or left in a near-death state from a single, sweeping blow.

Among the armed Goblins, one holding a rusted long sword instinctively thrust its weapon out to try and block the massive scythe. However, compared to the magical Power Axe that Vargas had used, trying to block the Death Scythe with a rusty iron sword was like trying to catch a raging waterfall with a teacup. The scythe met absolutely no resistance. It smoothly cleaved straight through the long sword, the Goblin’s arm, and its entire torso, covering the forest floor in blood and offal.

「Gyi~!」

Seeing more than half of their group slaughtered in a single attack, the surviving Goblins on Rei’s side instantly broke and scattered in all directions, sprinting away at full speed to escape.

Rei briefly debated whether he should chase them down, but the guild request only asked for five subjugations. He decided it was much better to harvest the dead Goblins for Set and the Death Scythe while he had the time. Given that, he chose to let the stragglers flee.

「Gururururu~!」

Set’s victorious cry echoed from the other side of the fallen trees. Judging that Set had cleaned up his side without any issues, Rei hopped over a massive tree trunk to join him.

All that remained on Set’s side were four Goblin corpses, some crushed by the sheer impact of Water Ball, others torn apart by his sharp claws, and the rest bitten to pieces. In total, Set had killed four. It was two fewer than Rei, who had slaughtered six in a single, devastating sweep. Considering how quickly the survivors had fled, it was a solid result for such a brief skirmish.

「Guru~」

Seeing Rei approach, Set chirped happily. Rei praised his partner and affectionately rubbed his head, a wry smile floating onto his face at the stark contrast between the pampered Griffon and the brutally scattered Goblin corpses.

After petting him for a little while and praising his combat results, Rei turned his attention back to collecting the necessary proof of subjugation.

By the way, in the case of Goblins, very few shops outside of the guild would purchase their low-quality materials. Because of that, Rei only bothered to harvest their right ears and their magic stones.

「Set, keep a close watch on our surroundings while I harvest the proof of subjugation and the magic stones.」
「Guru~」

Seeing Set nod and go on alert, Rei instinctively reached for the mithril knife at his waist……then paused, pushed it back into its sheath, and pulled a cheap iron dagger from the Misty Ring instead. It was one of the weapons he had confiscated from Vargas’s party.

(It’s a massive waste to dull a pristine mithril knife cutting up filthy Goblins. Since I went through the effort of acquiring this cheap iron dagger, I might as well use it for the dirty work.)

Using the iron dagger, he efficiently hacked off the right ear of a Goblin, the official proof of subjugation, sliced open its chest, and dug a tiny magic stone, roughly the size of his fingertip, out of its heart.

(Aside from the Water Bear, I don’t feel particularly troubled killing demi-human monsters. Though my soul fusing with Zephyr might have contributed to my mental fortitude, when I actually killed them……I’m just glad I didn’t hesitate or feel overly anxious. I feel a slight twinge of disgust at killing something so vaguely human, but that’s about it. Perhaps it’s because this is Elgin and not Japan, and ‘When in Rome, do as the Romans do’, I suppose. In the first place, you can’t survive as an adventurer if you hesitate to kill your targets.)

Rationalising his actions, Rei methodically moved from corpse to corpse, hacking off right ears and digging out magic stones one after the other.

By the way, even though he diligently collected all the Goblin magic stones, Rei knew they were among the weakest monsters in existence. He judged it was highly unlikely that Set or the Death Scythe would learn any new skills from absorbing them, so he tossed the tiny stones directly into the Misty Ring without hesitation. While Goblin magic stones only sold for the incredibly cheap price of one copper coin each, he figured it was still better than nothing.

After finishing the dismantling of the four Goblins Set had killed, Rei turned his attention to the weapons the monsters had dropped. However, the long swords and daggers were heavily rusted and completely useless, and he certainly didn’t possess the skills to repair them himself. While he could potentially take them to a blacksmith or a weapon shop in the city, the repair costs would undoubtedly be higher than the weapons’ actual value, resulting in a net loss. Determining they were completely worthless, Rei ruthlessly crushed the rusted weapons under the heavy heel of the Death Scythe to ensure the fleeing Goblins couldn’t reuse them later.

As for the crude clubs scattered around, he just left them where they lay. Though they were technically clubs, they were really just thick branches the Goblins had picked up. Rei figured they could easily replace them just by snapping new branches off the nearby trees, so destroying them was pointless.

「Alright, next up are the ones I killed. Set, this tree is……no, wait.」

Just as he was about to complain about the fallen tree blocking his path, he remembered his earlier experiment in the Forest of Monsters. He had successfully stored a broken tree inside the Misty Ring back then. In that case, he should be able to store these massive, freshly cut trunks as well.

Though there wasn’t any immediate, obvious use for storing massive tree trunks, Rei was optimistic and figured they might come in handy eventually.

「Alright, that’s much better. The obstacles have been temporarily removed. Set, keep up the watch.」
「Guru~」

With the massive fallen trees safely stored away, the area was suddenly clear. Leaving the lookout duties to Set, Rei began dismantling the six Goblins he had killed. These corpses were in a vastly different state compared to Set’s victims. Because he had cleaved through them with the massive Death Scythe, severed torsos, hands, feet, and heads were scattered everywhere, with blood and offal painting the forest floor. Wading through the carnage, Rei searched for intact heads to harvest the right ears, while simultaneously digging the tiny magic stones out of the exposed hearts. By chance, as Rei reached out to grab another corpse, he suddenly felt an intense, piercing gaze. Something was quietly observing them from the shadows.

「Guru~」

Sensing the shift in the atmosphere, Set grew highly wary, restlessly scanning the surrounding brush with sharp, predatory eyes.

(I have a really bad feeling about this, but I can’t pin down the exact location of the presence. ……Is it the rare species the receptionist warned me about? What is it aiming for? Is it playing it safe and waiting for us to leave? Or is it waiting to launch a surprise attack the moment we finish dismantling and drop our guard? If it’s a monster capable of hiding its presence so well that even Set can’t immediately spot it, I definitely want its magic stone. I need to find a way to lure it out.)

As Rei hacked the right ear off the final Goblin, he made up his mind to create a deliberate opening to bait the hidden monster. Just as he reached his bloodied hand in to dig out the magic stone from its heart……Set abruptly kicked off the ground and lunged right next to him.

The very next moment, a streak of red slammed into the Goblin corpse Rei had been dismantling just a second prior, and flames instantly erupted outward.

「Tch, using fire magic inside a dense forest?! Doesn’t it care if it burns the whole place down?! Set!」
「Gururu~!」

With a sharp cry, Set instantly conjured a Water Ball. The sphere of water smashed into the burning Goblin corpse, successfully extinguishing the flames before they could spread to the surrounding dry vegetation.

While confirming the fire was out, Rei rapidly scanned the immediate area. Sensing a sudden movement from the branches of the thick tree directly above him, he reflexively swung the Death Scythe upward.

Gyin~! A sharp clash of metal rang out as the shaft of the Death Scythe collided heavily with a descending long sword, cleanly snapping the cheap iron blade in half upon impact.

「Hah!」

Without even looking up, Rei violently swung the Death Scythe back around in a sweeping counter-attack. The hidden assailant desperately pushed a small wooden shield out to block the massive blade, but the shield was instantly cleaved in two, just like the long sword.

Still, by sacrificing the shield to absorb the kinetic impact, the assailant managed to escape the lethal edge of the Death Scythe. Using the force of the blow to push itself away, it landed nimbly on the forest floor, a safe distance from Rei and Set.

Now that it had landed, Rei could finally get a clear look at his attacker.

It held a shattered long sword in one hand and the strapped remains of a split wooden shield on its other arm. However, the most striking difference from a normal Goblin was the colour of its skin. While a standard Goblin had dull green skin, the creature standing before Rei had deep red skin. Furthermore, it was significantly larger and heavily muscled, standing a full head taller than any normal Goblin.

「I see, a rare species. You’re certainly a strange one.」

A cold smile floated onto Rei’s face when he saw the clear physical differences. Perhaps taking his smile as a sign of blatant contempt, the rare species furiously threw away the ruined remains of its shield and tightly gripped its half-broken long sword……

「Gyi~!」

Right after it shrieked, a ball of concentrated fire suddenly materialised right in front of its eyes.

(It’s structurally similar to Set’s Water Ball. In that case, should I call it a Fireball? Considering it wields a sword and shield, it fights like a soldier, but it can also clearly use beginner-class attack magic. Should I call it a magic knight? Regardless, its magic is utterly meaningless if it doesn’t get the chance to fire it!)

Rei violently kicked off the ground, intending to close the distance and kill the rare species before it could launch the spell. Channelling dense magic power into the Death Scythe, he swung the massive blade straight through the hovering fireball.

「Gyi!?」

The fireball was effortlessly cleaved in half by the scythe’s magical blade and instantly dispersed into harmless sparks. The tip of the scythe’s blade followed through, leaving a shallow, bleeding gash across the Goblin’s chest.

Panicking as it watched its prized magic spell be casually destroyed, the Goblin desperately hurled the jagged remains of its broken long sword directly at Rei’s face.

In a sense, the Goblin’s panicked reaction was entirely natural. How could a physical weapon simply cut through magic? While it wasn’t strictly impossible for a highly enchanted weapon to sever a spell, this was the very first time the primitive Goblin had ever encountered a magic item capable of channelling such dense magic power.

「You can certainly use magic, so your combat ability definitely lives up to the title of ‘rare species’. However, your absolute biggest advantage was your ability to hide your presence. Because you missed your chance to land a killing blow from the shadows, you are now the one being hunted……ha!」

Rei intentionally swung the Death Scythe downward in a heavy, highly telegraphed strike. Easily evading the clumsy blow, the Goblin let out a brief sigh of relief, thinking it had found an opening.

「Gyi~!」

Screaming in triumph, the Goblin lunged forward to attack. However, its biggest, most fatal mistake was focusing all of its awareness entirely on Rei. The true killing blow didn’t come from the scythe. It was no wonder, as fighting alone, the Goblin couldn’t afford to cast its fire magic again without being constantly interrupted by Rei’s relentless assaults.

Nevertheless, completely ignoring its surroundings to focus solely on Rei was a deadly error.

Tricked by the exaggerated downward swing of the Death Scythe, the Goblin never noticed Set creeping up behind it. Set viciously knocked the Goblin flat onto its back……and with the razor-sharp claws of an eagle, he pinned its throat to the dirt with the unmatched, crushing strength of a lion.

「Gyi~!」

Although Set was technically fighting a rare species, at the end of the day, a Goblin was still just a Goblin. Even by the Adventurers Guild’s standards, there was an astronomical gap in power between an F rank and an A rank monster. After all, a rare species was only considered one rank higher than normal, making it a mere E rank threat. Ultimately, the Goblin never even realised the absolute difference in their status. A sickening crunch echoed through the forest as Set effortlessly crushed the bones in its neck, instantly extinguishing its life.

「You did perfectly, Set.」
「Gururu~」

After affectionately patting Set’s head to praise him, Rei dug the magic stone out of the rare species’s heart. This magic stone was significantly larger and denser than the tiny, fingertip-sized stones he had harvested from the normal Goblins.

Although Rei briefly hesitated over whether to let Set or the Death Scythe absorb this unique magic stone, he ultimately decided that it was a tactical disadvantage for Set to only have Water Ball as his sole ranged attack skill. He decided to give it to his partner.

「Here you go, Set.」
「Guru~」

Set happily caught the offered magic stone in his beak and swallowed it in a single gulp.

And then……

【Set has acquired the skill 『Fire Breath Lv.1』】

The familiar, game-like announcement message echoed clearly in Rei’s mind.

「……It was the magic stone of a Goblin that specifically used a fireball spell, so why did he learn Fire Breath?」

Rei muttered, letting out a tired sigh at the system’s strange logic.

—

【Set】
『Water Ball Lv.1』
『Fire Breath Lv.1』 (New)

【Death Scythe】

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