TSKD 289

The Goblin Nest
TL: SupremeTentacle
ED: Sebas Tian

Dashing over to where the goblins had been spotted was the first thing Fran did after agreeing to exterminate them. She made sure to keep herself concealed throughout the journey so that she wouldn’t spook her foes before she found them.

“Master, how to find nest?”
“We’ll probably have to either find their tracks or tail one of ’em.”
“Got it.”
“It might be best for us to split up. Urushi, you mind sticking around here and seeing if you can find anything?”
“Woof!”

Urushi’s nose was nothing short of impressive. I was willing to bet that he’d be able to find the goblin nest with his sense of smell alone so long as it was nearby.

“As for us, Fran, we should probably start by hunting the goblins the guard spotted.”
“Nn.”
“Make sure you let a few live so that they can lead us back to their base.”
“Got it.”

It didn’t take long for us to find the goblins. They weren’t too far from where we’d encountered the last group.

“Strange.”
“Yeah…”
“Taking break?”
“Doubt it…”

It almost looked like the goblins were investigating the rocky area, which in and of itself, was already quite odd.

To make matters even more confusing was the fact that this group of goblins were just as well armed as the last. In fact, their equipment was pretty much identical.

It was immediately clear to me that they were from the same nest as the last group. The only difference my appraisal skill informed me of was that the second group was even weaker than the first. The combination of their apparent weakness and their smaller numbers made me feel as if they were relatively low on the chain of command; they were probably just your everyday grunts.

But that raises the question. Just how well off does a horde of goblins need to be to arm every single one of its lowly grunts with this kind of equipment? Like holy shit, they’re goblins, not knights. God damn!

“It looks like they really might’ve birthed a king or something…No way they’d be this coordinated otherwise.”
“Nn.”

Okay, yeah, it looks like we’re going to have to find that nest and obliterate it ASAP.

“Start with the leader. If we kill it, then the rest’ll probably start running. We should probably let at least three of them live. There are ten of them, so I guess that means you can kill up to seven.”
“Okay.”
“Alright, let’s do this!”
“Nn!”

I teleported us behind the goblin that appeared to be in charge of the group. Fran swiftly dispatched both it and the one to its side in a single motion.

“Gyaooo!”
“Gya gya!”
“Slow.”

The goblins realized that they were under attack and attempted to react, but they were unable to. Fran cut down another two while I roasted three with a fire spell.

All three of the remaining goblins began turning their heads and looking at their allies. Their eyes wandered back and forth between the cut up corpses and the flame-broiled corpses before they finally realized that only they had survived our assault.

“Gyahiii!”
“Gyoeeheee!”
“Hyahohiii!”

The goblins let loose what I assumed to be screams as they turned tail and began to flee. Naturally, we chose not to attack even though they’d made themselves totally vulnerable. We stealthily began to chase after them, ensuring that we remained hidden even while on the move.

None of the goblins so much as turned around as they sprinted forwards with everything they had. They were so terrified that they pissed their pants and shat themselves as they ran.

“Perfect,” said Fran.

Those mother fucking goblins! How dare they show Fran something that god damn filthy!? I swear to God that I’m going to “disinfect” the shit out of them the moment they lead us back to their nest.

The goblins couldn’t sense us, so it didn’t take too long for them to come to the conclusion that we were no longer pursuing them. They slowed themselves down to a fast walk. Though they thought they were safe, they were too terrified to stop, so they continued to advance as they fearfully gazed around.

They passed a waterskin between each other. The goblins took turns drinking from it as they interacted with each other. Their gestures were strangely human-like.

Something about this whole scenario just feels… off. I remember chasing Goblins around back when I was still exploring the Demonic Wolf’s Plains. These goblins are stupid, but the ones I met back then were even dumber. They’d randomly start playing around and napping, as if they weren’t able to focus on anything for too long.

“Master. There.”
“Is that their base? It looks like it.”

The nest we discovered looked like it contained somewhere in the realm of a hundred goblins. I saw a couple goblin fighters and thieves mingled in with all the others.

“There.”

Fran directed my attention towards a specific part of the goblin base.

“Shit, is that a goblin king!? God damn, the guards were right!”

Well, at least they’re not hiding away in some cave. Them being out in the open makes getting rid of them much more convenient.

“Huh, that’s weird. They’ve all got the exact same equipment.”

How the hell did that happen? Like, murdering a mercenary group or two isn’t nearly enough to arm an entire group of goblins with the exact same shit.

“Doesn’t matter if wipe out.”
“Yeah, true.”

Fran had a point. King aside, all the goblins were just negligibly weak grunts.

The three we tailed immediately ran up to the king and began making a sort of report. I couldn’t understand their language, but I didn’t need to. I knew that they were making some sort of report concerning Fran regardless.

“Well then. Looks like the goblin king’s got balls.”

He immediately began rallying his troops once the three goblins had finished with their report. Based on his gestures, it seemed likely that the king intended to take the whole horde to Fran’s location.

“We should probably cage them up so none of them get away.”
“Nn. Got it.”

Fran and I both preceded by casting Thunder Wall, the spell that came with Lightning Magic’s second level. The two of us focused our magical energy to create five large walls. Specifically, Fran created two, and I created three. They came together to form a sort of pentagon, enclosing all the goblins within. The large panels of lightning suddenly popped up around the goblins. They were buzzing with electricity, and clearly had the ability to electrocute anything they touched.

“Gogogyaaaooooh!?”
“Agyaga!”

Wow, colour me impressed.

The goblin king remained rational as he ordered a subordinate to attack the walls. A goblin soldier immediately complied and smashed his axe into the electric fence, only to receive a sudden shock and collapse on the spot. Though the soldier hadn’t died, he had temporarily lost his ability to move.

We then pelted the goblins from the sky with all sorts of lightning magic. Only after they were all dead did we finally undo the cage.

“Looks like we’re done. I’mma go around absorbing all the cores.”
“Nn.”
“Most of their equipment got damaged by our magic, but I’m pretty sure some of it is at least still useable.”
“Nn. Will put in storage.”
“Yeah, might as well bring it back to the village.”

Killing the goblins had granted Fran a significant amount of experience. It managed to push her over the threshold.

“Grats! It looks like you’ve hit level 46.”
“Nn!”

Fran’s level cap had changed due to her evolution, but only now did we finally actually smash through her old cap. Breaking past level 45 really did imprint a powerful sense of progression. I couldn’t wait to see Fran continue growing to the point where she would be able to overpower even the Beast Lord and everyone else on his level.

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