The forest bathed in low morning sunlight wasn't much different from yesterday.
The sunlight filtering through the trees was much the same, and the damp smell of earth was much the same. Whenever the wind shook the leaves, they rustled, and somewhere, a bird cried out briefly.
I tightened my grip on the sword hilt, then loosened it again.
'Ah, am I already getting used to this?'
It was too soon to say I had grown stronger, yet it felt strange to claim I was exactly the same as yesterday.
The sensation of dirt beneath my feet, the sound of bushes swaying—they were all becoming clearer, bit by bit.
Kaya spoke in a low voice while looking at the bushes ahead.
"Left."
The words were brief but certain.
We immediately turned our gazes. The lower part of the bushes was shaking faintly. Two small shadows. Along with them, we heard low, screeching cries.
They were normal goblins.
"I'll go first."
Marie gathered flames at her fingertips.
The moment a short burst of flame shot out, one of the goblins inside the bushes screamed and leaped out.
"Kiek, kieek!"
The other one followed right behind.
I took a breath and immediately stepped forward. If it had been like yesterday, tension would have frozen my body stiff first, but this time, my feet moved naturally.
The goblin's dagger scraped past from the side. Instead of taking it head-on, I twisted a step and deflected it.
Clang!
My wrist stung, but less than yesterday. Gripping my sword tighter, I dug straight in.
Garen had said.
'If you've decided to go in, don't hesitate and push through to the end. That is an adventurer's blade.'
The iron sword cut through the neck.
Slash.
One goblin collapsed, its head separated from its body.
'Demacia!'
A short laugh escaped me.
In the meantime, the other one tried to close in on Kaya. A faint light flashed from Kaya's fingertips, and the moment the goblin squinted, Marie's second flame went in.
Boom!
The goblin fell backward.
I approached and finished it off.
Pulling out my iron sword and catching my breath, my heart was calmer than yesterday. My hands shook less, too.
Marie glanced at me.
"Better than yesterday."
"Right? I guess Garen's teachings are helping. I'll take the lead from now on!"
"Don't get cocky."
"It's common courtesy to reply when you receive praise!"
"Whatever. You've still got a long way to go."
Kaya let out a small sigh but lifted the corners of her mouth slightly.
"That wasn't bad. It was good that you didn't try to block it head-on."
"Hehe, that too is thanks to Teacher Garen's teachings..."
"He might be working since morning, rolling someone worse than a beast around, trying to make a human out of him."
"Wow, then I'm really touched?"
We extracted magic stones from the corpses, put them in a leather pouch, and headed deeper in.
The fighting continued a few more times after that.
Once, all three of us moved simultaneously. Kaya located goblin traces, Marie pushed them back with flames first, and I cut down the one that leaped out.
Another time, two fleeing goblins split behind a tree, but I read their direction first and chased one down to kill it. Marie burned the other one. Thanks to Kaya briefly calling out directions from behind, we finished without getting crossed up.
I couldn't remember every detail.
The goblins' screams, Kaya's low and precise orders, the sound of clashing swords, the smell of blood, the sensation of dirt flying.
Those things repeated at similar intervals.
If it had been like yesterday, each and every fight would have been overwhelming, but today was far smoother.
By the time the sunlight slanted through the trees, the magic stones inside the leather pouch had gained considerable weight.
I wiped the sweat from my forehead and spoke.
"This is nice."
"What is."
"We're really going to earn a lot today, aren't we?"
"That much is true."
Kaya replied briefly.
Marie kicked a blackened goblin corpse once and said.
"Today's a bit easy."
"Right? It's all thanks to me~"
"Shameless. I'll burn you too. Come here."
"Ouch... just kidding, just kidding~"
I was a bit excited.
That feeling of finally earning money properly.
Just like in RPG games where you grind mobs early on to earn money, level up, and learn skills one by one, right now was exactly like that. In reality, I was grinding goblins repeatedly, finding magic stones, earning money, and on top of that, slowly accumulating things like the Heavenly Demon Physique and other passives.
'This is the life.'
I couldn't say I was completely at ease yet, but at least today, we weren't being dragged around by the goblins.
Just as the morning was nearing its end, the final engagement erupted.
Three normal goblins and one warrior-type.
There was no shaman-type, but the atmosphere changed once the warrior-type joined in. It stood behind the normal goblins holding its sword low, while the others spread to the sides, taking advantage of the gap.
"I'll take the left."
I spoke first.
Kaya nodded briefly.
"Don't overdo it."
"Yes."
Marie's flame burst first.
One normal goblin was charred in the blaze, and the other two split to both sides simultaneously.
I immediately went in toward the one that dug in to the left. Its dagger scraped quickly from below, but I didn't panic.
I laid my blade to deflect the dagger, pushed my body in close, and cut.
Slash.
Immediately, the warrior goblin closed in.
It was thick-bodied, similar to the one we met yesterday. It didn't swing its sword carelessly, but calmly aimed for my legs and arms. My heart beat a bit faster, but I wasn't as desperate as yesterday.
Shoulders and waist first, not hands. Deflect rather than block. Once you commit, go all the way.
Garen's teachings briefly flashed through my mind.
Clang!
Clash!
I was pushed back once. My wrist went numb.
'...This is much more manageable than yesterday.'
I angled my sword to deflect the warrior goblin's blade to the side and immediately stepped half a pace inward.
Its yellow eyes wavered for a very brief moment.
At that moment, Kaya's light flashed from the side.
The warrior goblin squeezed its eyes shut.
'Nice flash.'
Marie slammed a flame into that opening.
Boom!
Its body stiffened for an instant.
I drove my sword straight in.
Thud!
The warrior goblin's breath hitched weakly, and it fell to its knees.
I twisted my sword and pulled it free.
The remaining one had charged at Marie and was already collapsed, wrapped in flames.
A moment of silence.
Only then did I exhale.
"Whew..."
I bent my knees briefly and straightened them. My arms were a bit heavy, and my wrists were stiff. Still, I smiled.
"Weren't we pretty good just now?"
"...A little."
"Right."
"Kaya... I'm really moved."
"Because that really was good."
"Hehe, my goal is to become a Goblin Slayer."
"You have a useless goal, don't you?"
"It's not useless!"
"You two are both noisy."
Marie extracted the magic stone from the warrior goblin's corpse and tossed it my way.
"Here. You take this."
"Oh, thank you. We earned quite a bit today, didn't we?"
"We should have."
We decided to head back from here.
Before the sun reached its zenith, we arrived at the guild. Luche, standing at the reception desk, opened her eyes slightly when she saw the magic stones we laid out.
"You caught a lot today."
"Right? Things went pretty well today."
At my words, Marie spoke up from beside me.
"You talk like you did it alone?"
"As if~ Everyone worked hard to catch them."
Luche smiled faintly and organized the magic stones poured out on the reception desk one by one.
Sixteen murky gray-green normal goblin magic stones. Pebble-like things with rough surfaces and a deadened luster, each about two to three knuckles in size.
Beside them, two warrior-type goblin magic stones had been placed separately. Rhombus-shaped crystals with a greenish-brown tint. Slightly harder than the normal goblin magic stones, and inside, faint red veins were visible like cracks.
Luche flipped through the ledger and calculated.
"The basic reward for clearing out the northeastern outskirts goblin remnants is 2 silver coins. Sixteen normal goblin magic stones come to 32 copper coins. Two warrior-type goblin magic stones come to 8 copper coins. Altogether, that's 5 silver coins and 4 copper coins."
"Ooh...!"
The moment I heard the exact numbers, I swallowed dryly.
'We really earned a lot.'
Yesterday hadn't been a small amount either, but today was definitely different. This was no longer mere meal money—it was a means to make a living.
"Hehe."
"What? Why are you smiling like that?"
"Now goblins are my companions in life. Let's annihilate them all!"
"Ugh, so noisy."
Marie picked up one of the two warrior-type magic stones on the reception desk and pushed it toward me.
"This is yours, like I said earlier."
"Huh?"
"The one who rolled around the most today should take it."
Kaya nodded silently as well.
"You finished off the warrior-type earlier, too. Take it."
"...Thank you! I'll work even harder!"
I looked down at one of the warrior-type magic stones.
Faint red veins showed through the greenish-brown crystal.
It was slightly larger than a normal goblin magic stone, and its presence was far heavier.
'Ah, this feeling of being acknowledged. I had forgotten it for a while. A feeling I only briefly experienced at the start of my part-time job days, and had mostly forgotten since then... sex.'
"Even a performance bonus... jeez..."
"Ugh, what are you muttering to yourself?"
Marie looked at me from the side with a slightly contemptuous gaze.
Ignoring her, I calculated today's earnings in my head.
If I set aside the value of one warrior-type magic stone, the remaining amount is 60 copper coins.
Divided among three people, that's 20 copper coins each.
Adding the value of one warrior-type stone, 4 copper coins, what comes into my hand is 24 copper coins.
And if I add yesterday's share on top of that...
I counted on my fingers next to the ledger.
3 silver coins, 3 copper coins.
Exactly 39 copper coins.
The sound of coins clinking in my hand rang out softly. They weren't light. The moments of suffering in the forest today had transformed into a few thin metal coins.
"I'll pay off my debts first."
"Yes, how much would you like to pay?"
"For now... until they're gone."
Luche opened the debt ledger and read them off one by one.
"Public bath, 4 coins. Sunset Hearth basic meal, 4 coins. Dinner, 8 coins. One change of clothes, 10 coins..."
The moment I heard up to there, I immediately nodded.
"I'll pay all of that too."
4 copper, 4 copper, 8 copper, 10 copper.
Each time a coin moved onto the ledger, Luche's pen erased the lines one by one.
I watched until the very end for no particular reason.
Public bath.
Meal fees.
Beer fees.
Clothes fees.
They had seemed like nothing much, but seeing the lines actually erased gave me a strangely poignant feeling.
The sensation of paying off debts one by one with money earned from killing countless goblins made my heart pound fiercely.
'Romantic. Pass.'
Luche pointed to the next line.
"One pair of leather guards, 1 silver coin and 4 copper coins."
"I'll put in as much as I can for that too."
What I had paid off until now came to 26 copper coins total.
I had 13 copper coins left in my hand.
I pushed all of it across the counter.
Luche modified the ledger.
"For the leather guards debt, repaying 13 copper coins leaves a remaining balance of 3 copper coins."
"Whew, almost done."
"Indeed."
And the last line.
Iron sword. 5 silver coins.
I stared at that line for a long while. The numbers clearly written on the ledger looked unnecessarily large.
Luche asked cautiously.
"Shall we leave the weapon as is?"
"Yes... that one is still far off."
I let out a short laugh.
Still, it was fine.
Bath fees, meal fees, beer fees, clothes fees—all paid. The leather guards were practically paid off too... Now what remained was 3 copper coins for the leather guards, and 5 silver coins for the iron sword.
'Hmm... looks like I'll have to squeeze Mr. Goblin completely dry? My mouth is watering~'
✧ ✧ ✧
Turning back time slightly, to the world of the gods.
Crack!
The moment that sound rang out, the Supreme Dragon 'Stella' could not raise her head. Cold sweat dripped from the tips of her horns.
The God of Evil, 'Cherno', looked down at the situation and opened his mouth.
"Wow... fuck, what did you just do?"
"Ah... aah. Ah, no... th-that... I'm sorry!!!"
Stella reflexively slammed her head into the floor.
—Boom!!!
As the roar echoed, it almost felt like cracks were forming in the ground.
Without even looking at that sight, Cherno turned his head and shouted as though tearing through the empty air.
"Celestia!!!!!"
Shortly after, a blinding light gathered in the form of 'annoyance.'
The God of Light, 'Celestia', let out a sigh first.
"I told you not to make such a noisy fuss."
"Look at what this bastard did! How the fuck would I not make a fuss?!"
Cherno pointed his finger at Stella.
Celestia answered sarcastically in formal speech.
"What kind of dogshit is it this time?"
And the moment she looked toward Stella, her expression hardened.
"...Ha."
"Right? I'm holding back so fucking hard right now, too."
"Who brought this useless, trash-like lizard?"
"Ah, right! This bastard volunteered to come?"
"Then it's even worse."
Celestia smiled.
It was a smile far too cold for a God of Light, only the corners of her mouth curling up thinly. Her eyes remained frigid and unshaken.
"Shall I kill her? Shall I?!"
"Ha... can't we just press the reset button?"
"We can't do things like resets."
"No, I'm just saying! Just saying!"
Cherno flared up in anger, then suddenly sighed deeply, as if all strength had left him.
"Ha... what do we do?"
"I know right. What should we do..."
Stella continued to shout while keeping her head pressed to the ground.
"I'm sorry!!"
The two looked at each other briefly.
And spoke simultaneously.
"Let's just watch for now."
"Let's just watch for now."
Thus the light folded, and the darkness folded.
What remained was only Stella's cold sweat.