CH 5

Chapter 5: 500 Goblins

The next morning, Yuto woke up at sunrise, and swiftly gathered his belongings.

It has been a while since he headed to a dungeon alone and not as a luggage carrier.

He made sure his sword was properly equipped and sprinted out of his room.

He ran the main road up north, and arrived at the main square in front of the temple.

It is still in the early morning hours but already there is intense recruiting done by various parties.

He weaved through the recruiting scouts, and Yuto headed for the Labyrinth Temple.

“Hey, Yuto! We’re going to a Insta-E. Wanna join as a luggage carrier?”

“Yuto! We’re doing an Insta-D. How about it? We’ll give you more than your usual fare.”

As the crowd thins in the square, Yuto receives multiple invites to join their parties.

These are his regulars that let Yuto be their party’s luggage carrier.

A luggage carrier does two things. One is the obvious - you carry all the luggage of the adventurers.

There are some dungeons where you will be done in a day, and others which takes days before you can return back to above ground. Just in case, you usually take a few days supply of emergency rations before entering any dungeon.

The second job is collecting the drop items.

Once you defeat a monster, the bodies of the creature disappear into the dungeon, and they leave behind their *magic crystals and various other monster parts. They called these things “drops.”

Collecting these drops is also the job of the luggage carrier.

From a 3rd party perspective, people call you a scavenger because you are just picking off the remains of monsters you did not defeat.

That is why a luggage carrier role is not classified as an adventurer.

But setting aside his pride, Yuto gladly accepted the luggage carrier position.

He thought maybe he could understand how to level up by watching other strong adventurers at work, and he had to make a living some way, some how.

Yuto apologetically smiled and shook his head to decline.

Yuto: “I’m so sorry. I’m heading to the base today.”

“Dangit, that’s unfortunate.”

“Hey, be careful out there Weak Sauce.”

He parted with the familiar adventurers, and Yuto arrived at the temple.

The temple is a safeguard that was constructed to seal away the base dungeon.

It was said that the building was created directly by God’s hands, but being an E-Rank, Yuto does not know any more than that.

Inside the temple is the Adventurer’s Guild.

All adventurers heading down to the dungeon will receive resource collecting quests, and those returning from the dungeon will sell their drop items back to the guild.

Once the guild approves of your strength, your level as an adventurer goes up.

Once your rank rises, you can receive more quests from the guild.

Some say that some quests have rewards so large that completing one would give you enough money to not have to work for a full year.

The Adventurer’s rank range from the bottom E to the very top S.

Currently, the number of adventurers in Kronos is said to range from 100 to 200 thousand. Within that group, there are only 5 S-Class Adventurers.

That is how much stronger and a cut above they are compared to everyone else.

Yuto is the lowest E-Rank Adventurer.

You can’t blame the guild for giving him this rank since he genuinely does not have any strength as an adventurer.

The guild counter is dealing with crowds of adventurers this morning, and glancing at them as he walks by, Yuto heads to the entrance of the dungeon.

The entrance of the dungeon is in the middle of a large room and was sitting there wide-open.

At the center of the stone flooring is a magical inscription. This is the magical barrier said to prevent monsters from coming into the temple.

Yuto is careful to not trip on any of the deep engravings of the inscription and heads to the entrance.

Past the entrance, a long stone stairway is leading downwards.

From this point on is the first base floor of the dungeon.

Inside the dungeon is a faint light.

The entire dungeon is lighted with the same light.

Yuto keeps his hand on his longsword as he carefully moves forward.

At times, he sees some goop stuck on the walls. These are slimes.

In rare cases, they would grow large enough to attack humans, but overall, they are harmless monsters.

And even if you defeat them, they rarely drop anything.

Slimes are bottom feeders that eat away the waste and filth that collects within the dungeon.

Because of that, Slimes are taken outside the dungeon and used for their ability.

They are good at eating leftovers and cleaning out sewers.

Slimes are one of the few monsters that can coexist with humans.

Ignoring the Slimes, Yuto continues to walk, and 2 monsters appeared before him. Standing on two legs with an overall green skin - it’s a goblin.

Yuto: “Alright!”

Yuto needs to defeat 500 goblins.

Getting himself pumped up, he charges at the Goblins.

Goblin A: “GeGya!”

Goblin B: “GyaGyaGya!!”

The Goblins try to intimidate Yuto.

A novice adventurer may have flinched at their sound.

But Yuto has already faced many Goblins, and this does not work on him.

Yuto moves smoothly with light footwork, and comes out in front and swings his longsword. He cuts the air.

The first swing decapitates the first Goblin, and the next swing cuts the Goblin standing to the right across the body.

Goblin B: “GAHH!”

The Goblins fall to the floor.

The one who lost his head instantly died.

The one cut across his body slowly stopped moving and died.

The dungeon coming to life, swallows up the Goblins.

Their bodies sink into the ground as if they were sitting on a thick swamp. The Goblins disappear beneath the floors.

As the Goblins disappear, two small rocks appear. These are the magic crystals.

Yuto: “Fwew...”

Yuto takes a deep breath and collects the Magic Crystals.

Yuto: “Wow, being a Level-5 really makes a world of difference. My body feels completely different.”

Yuto himself was surprised at how easily he dispatched both Goblins.

If you’re a Level-1 Novice Adventurer, you would have some trouble facing Goblins.

But Yuto had stacked up enormous amounts of experience facing Goblins, and at Level-1, he learned how to fight them with relative ease.

This wasn’t because Yuto had any special skills.

The Goblins’ attack method was too simple with overexaggerated body movements and had easily identifiable and predictable traits. Yuto memorized each fact vigorously and never forgot them.

So in a sense, this was the product of Yuto’s efforts.

In this battle, Yuto was able to defeat the Goblins as he had done in the past, but unlike before, he sensed improvements in his speed of approach and swing of his blade.

Yuto was surprised at how he felt little to no resistance cutting down the Goblins.

Yuto: “This is the power of leveling up…”

Yuto reflected upon how amazing this ability was.

If you level up, it gets THIS easy to hunt down monsters.

Before, it felt as though Yuto was fighting with heavy weights strapped, chained, and wrapped around his body.

Now, it felt like those restrictions and limitations all fell off, and his movements became lighter and sharper.

Yuto: “Great!”

At this rate, Yuto will be able to take down 500 Goblins in no time.

Yuto got his blood pumping again, and starts seeking out more Goblins.

Looking at the Quest Screen of his Skill Board, Yuto continues to fell Goblins one by one.

Up until now, Yuto fought desperately against monsters.

Of course, even now, he is fighting for his life.

But this was the first time he experienced hope as he swung his blade.

He knew how many times he had to swing, and where his goal was.

Compared to when he was swinging his sword without any context or knowledge, he was raggedly tired, but his sword felt light.

He did not know how much time had passed.

Yuto: “...500!!”

He finally defeats the 500th Goblin.

Yuto: “Haaa…. Haaaa…. Aaaaaaaahhhhhh I’m so tired-----...”

Repeating the scouting and battles over and over, Yuto’s body was already at its limit.

Yuto crumples to the floor to sit down.

He takes out the waterskin from his bag and drinks it all down in one swig.

When he crossed the 400 count, Yuto rushed to get to the end, and didn’t take any breaks since then.

His throat absorbs the liquid and it flows into his dried out body.

Yuto: “Alright, let’s see what happend to the Quest.”

Yuto takes out the Skill Board.

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CHONKY NOTES

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*Magic Crystals (maseki) (魔石) -- a trope used in Monster-based RPG’s especially in Japanese genre’s when the monsters are called “mamono” (魔物) (i.e. Demonic Beings or things). The purpose of the Magic Crystals (i.e. Monster Crystals; Magic rocks) varies with different series, and authors will have various uses for them - creating magic items, using it as a magic power source, etc. In this series, they are just introduced as Magic Crystals with no background or context.