Chapter 20

20. Raise and build! (1)

Ko Byeong-gap felt overwhelmed. He thought he should dance naked since he made 6 million won.

It didn’t feel right, so he went to his closet. He came back to his room in his underwear, then laid in bed. Scratching his groin, he looked up at the rustic ceiling wallpaper.

“Damn, did I get in and out of a crack with some ghosts?”

The first thing Ko Byeong-gap did after he returned home was to search the Internet. He looked for the four people he worked with that day.

However, there was no data related to them. The background check showed only a few hunters of the same name, and none of them were S-class.

Usually, there would be at least one headline or article for S-class hunters.

-[Breaking News!] Korea’s 450th S-class awakener born! Why is her identity wrapped in a veil?

-The 450th S-Class Awakener Baek Ga-hee. ‘I haven’t decided on my career path as a hunter yet.’ Undecided… Will she be going to work under a famous guild?

-[Exclusive!] Baek Ga-hee joined the Hunter Afro Guild! ‘I will become a hunter who contributes to society!’ A wave of support with a clear feeling.

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Even in articles like that, he should at least find something.

-[Dating topic] Kang Han-cheol dating a hunter who is 10 years younger? ‘Still getting to know her?’ What is her identity?

There was nothing else but that.

For reference, Kang Han-cheol, who appeared there, was a B-class hunter, and the ratio of Hunter’s life in the entertainment industry was about 2:8.

“Did they use aliases, or were they unregistered hunters? No wonder it was suspicious!’

The post posted by Kim Hana had been deleted. Hindering his attempts to track her identification number.

‘It doesn’t matter if it’s a simple alias, but if they’re unregistered hunters…

Article 1, Paragraph 1 of the Special Act on Awakeners was as follows.

An awakener who is not registered as a hunter shall not engage in hunting or gathering in cracks.’

Even if he didn’t know why such a law was made, it was the law anyway. Therefore, it wasn’t good news that he had been in a crack with an unregistered hunter.

‘I can’t talk about it to anyone.’

He even danced earlier since he worked with an S-class hunter, but he couldn’t believe she was an unidentified person. It was worth living for a long time.

Fortunately, the place where the crack was located was remote. So if he kept his mouth shut, no one would be able to say anything about it.

‘By the way… What the hell was that?’

Ko Byeong-gap briefly closed his eyes and recalled the time when he faced the Raven with his sword.

-Being that is different from us, what are you?

It happened in a very short period of time, but he clearly remembered the pain. It was obviously the voice of the Raven. A voice that went directly into his head, not through his ears. His words still seemed to ring in his mind.

“Different being? I’m a little bit different, I guess.’

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A human-born Goblin Lord. From any angle, he was a product of disharmony. To be honest, he still hadn’t completely accepted what happened to him.

Sometimes, when he woke up, he wondered if everything that had happened to him was a dream, but welcoming it had always been a hard reality.

‘Even the Raven can speak. Do other monsters also have their own world?’

In the face of the fallen Goblin Kingdom, how could there be a law against the existence of a fallen Raven Kingdom?

Another thing he wondered, was there a kingdom far away where only monsters lived?

“Huh, what?”

Ko Byeong-gap let out an ignorant laugh. He pulled his hand out of his pants and ruffled his hair. He then went back to his initial thought, to the time when he collided with the Raven.

“Damn, it was such a shock that I even blocked that attack. I thought I was hit by a cargo truck.”

He thought he was a lot stronger than before, but… life was a cliche; there was always someone on top.

“There’s still a long way to go.”

How many more bottles of growth potions did he need to fight on par with an A-class monster? Also, how much stronger did he have to be to compete with the S-class hunters, who cut A-class monsters like a radish?

“Whoa.”

He got up with a sigh. Rice cakes wouldn’t start to fall from the sky if he kept lying down and scratching his groin.

Ko Byeong-gap got dressed and went to Ashvilam.

‘What’s this smell?’

There was a thick, fishy smell on the rocky mountain. When he wondered where it came from, he found the Goblins baking the Horned Wolves they caught a few days ago. It looked like they were having a late lunch.

“Oh, my Lord. Are you here?”

“Lord, are you here?”

“Lord, sir.”

The Goblins smiled warmly and welcomed Ko Byeong-gap. When he saw the Goblins, he had a warm feeling. It felt like he was arriving in his hometown.

‘I guess I’m crazy too.’

He laughed inside, and his laughter slipped out. Ko Byeong-gap approached the Goblins with a pleasant sigh.

“Hey, you there, have you been eating?”

* * *

Ashvilam had 142 goblins. Considering the first 33 members, their number had increased significantly.

Ko Byeong-gap sat down the 52 new Goblins and was lost in thought. 51 Normal Goblins and 1 Hob Goblin. What should he do with them?

‘I don’t have enough pickaxes, so I don’t have anything to order them.’

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Aside from the fact that there was nothing to order them to do right away, it was necessary to broaden his thinking.

‘I have to look at it in the long run.’

Even if he threw some pickaxes to the Goblins and didn’t know what to do with them, they would get a reward.

Anyway, the Goblins would keep digging for crystals because things with the crystals they dug up, but that was too far ahead.

At first, he thought it was for the reconstruction of Ashvilam and nothing else.

‘Ashvilam or what?’

He thought it was for the situation of the Goblins. So, he had no intention to rebuild their kingdom or make the Goblins eat and live well.

In the short term, that might be right. He roughly fed the Goblins, bought some growth potions, bought some textbooks, and learned them…

Well, just doing that made his standard of living better than before. However, that was a dirty little life. He had to set a long and grand goal to change his life 180 degrees by paying off his debts. He needed to subjugate dungeons to pay off his private loan.

Moreover, the long-term goal eventually merged with the reconstruction of Ashvilam. The meeting of the Goblins and Ko Byeong-gap was consequently one of a shared destiny.

Ko Byeong-gap turned his head. The Goblins that sat in front of him also turned their heads. Where they looked was the fog that reached the sky.

‘Someday, we have to go over there.’

The space given to them currently was, at best, part of the middle of the rocky mountain. It was just children’s play for them to stir-fry there.

To achieve a big achievement, they would have to move on to a wider stage.

‘I’m going to have to bring in some female goblins too.’

To recruit Goblins in and out of cracks was also limited. Ultimately, if he wanted to increase the population, they would have to have children.

‘Then we should prepare the infrastructure in advance in case the population will increase in the future.’

Even at that time, they couldn’t work since they didn’t have pickaxes, right? In addition, there was no room to accommodate the newly introduced Goblins.

Even if there wasn’t enough preparation, they were also not ready.

‘… Alright, let’s focus on Ashvilam for the time being.’

5 million won as a reward last time. The compensation received after he completed the emergency subjugation was 1 million won.

He got 6 million won from Kim Hana that day and the money he earned while subjugating with the Goblins.

He already earned two months’ worth of money. It wouldn’t be a big problem if he took it easy for two or three weeks.

After he made up his mind, he rose up and said, “Follow me all.”

“Yep!”

He led the Goblins to the western forest. A forest full of hardwoods. A little further over, there was a small creek.

‘There’s a river nearby, so this should be good.’

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“I’m going to go somewhere for a while, so you guys level here.”

“Us, level?”

“It means to flatten the ground. Pick up the stones on the floor and put them aside. If you have branches, pick them up.”

“Yes, sir!”

Ko Byeong-gap left Ashvilam after he entrusted the leveling work to the Goblins.

He looked through the chest of drawers he had never looked in before as he returned to his bedroom. Fortunately, he had what he was looking for. A shabby notebook and a pencil.

Ko Byeong-gap sat with his arms crossed and looked at the blank paper.

‘Food, clothes, shelter, and reproduction.’

There were only three requirements for living. What to wear, what to eat, where to sleep.

If one was lost in the wild, solving these three things was the biggest problem.

Ashvilam had a warm climate day and night. So there was no big problem with the Goblins living in basic hangouts.

Of course, there were seasons there, so if winter came, it would be a good idea to think about it by then. But even still, he could make warm clothes through alchemy.

For, ‘food.’ The Goblins didn’t have a picky appetite. To the Goblins, the monster meat smelled so delicious that it was enough for them to eat it without saying anything.

If they went into cracks every time food ran out; they wouldn’t starve to death.

“No, that’s not enough.”

He decided to take a step further.

‘We need to create our own food supply system in Ashvilam.’

There was a limit to feeding like a hamster. Wasn’t it possible to store food in the real world for a long time since he had a refrigerator there?

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If the goblins got sick as a group after eating rotten meat, there was nothing more difficult than that.

Unfortunately, there were only small fishes in the river and no fruit in the trees. So, there was only one answer.

‘We should raise livestock and make them farm.’

It wouldn’t be easy. It wouldn’t be a day or two, but they needed to build their foundation early on to honor the future.

As with the issue regarding their shelter, that too could be easily solved. He could go around junkyards and waste furniture disposal facilities to bring useful items. It would only cost a small sum of money.

“If I can afford to get more crystals in the future, I might as well buy a few houses.”

Ko Byeong-gap wrote down what came to mind in his notebook. The paper, which used to be blank, was filled with black letters.

‘I’ve never planned my life in such detail.’

“Haha.” He laughed.

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He had been trying to make money day and night and tried to pay off his mother’s hospital bills. For Ko Byeong-gap, the reconstruction of the fallen kingdom came as quite an interesting surprise.

After he cooled his head for a moment, Ko Byeong-gap brought up the last topic.

‘Reproduction.’

Although not essential for their immediate survival, it was the most important part. The mission given to Ko Byeong-gap wasn’t to raise the Goblins but to raise their country.

He had been thinking about that for a long time. It wasn’t long before the margins of the notes were filled.

“Now, should I get started?”

He exited the house with excitement. From that moment on, there were many places to stop by.

* * *

-Thank you, boss!

“Yes, when will it be delivered?”

-I’ll bring it to you tomorrow. Should I ship it to the place you mentioned?

“Yes, come over there, and I’ll be waiting for you. Just give me a call before you leave.”

-Yes, I will do that.

“Alright, I’ll see you tomorrow.”

-Yeah… until then.

Ko Byeong-gap smiled happily and hung up the phone. He had just bought 100 pickaxes, 20 axes, 30 shovels, and 50 hoes.

He was lucky to find a supplier that sold quality products at a low price. All in all, it cost only about 2.5 million won in total.

There might be leftover equipment as of the moment, but it was okay. After all, he planned to increase the number of Goblins in earnest.

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‘They’ve become an agricultural tool.’

Ko Byeong-gap was on the phone without a break. That time, it was a different company.

-I got your call.

“Oh, yes. Hello. Are you Park Sang-jin?”

-Yes, that’s right. Who is this?

“I’m calling after seeing your blog. Are you the one who sells potatoes and sweet potato seeds?”

-Oh, yeah! That’s right!

Park Sang-jin’s voice over the phone quickly changed to that of a businessman.

Ko Byeong-gap grinned and continued, “Oh, yes. I want to buy some potatoes and sweet potatoes as well.”

That was the start of a real colony.