CH 7

Beyond the Wall

“Gein, Zuky. I have a request.”

I said to the two who were drinking again.

These two had become my good friends. It was mostly because we were drunk.

Gein was a former D-Rank Adventurer, but he retired and came here with the chief in order to help build the settlement. He spent most of his time exterminating monsters in the forest and escorting villagers who had business in the city.

Zuky was the most skilled hunter in the village.

“What’s this now?”

“I want to hunt goblins. And I need your help.”

“Have goblins appeared again? Where!”

Gein asked me with a serious expression. But that wasn’t it.

“No, the goblins haven’t appeared yet. But they are like a wall for me. A wall that I need to climb over.”

The two men looked at each other and then burst into laughter.

“Ahahaha! And so, heh, you want us to help you? Ahahaha!”

They looked like they were going to die.

I had encountered goblins a few times, and they were no joke. They had green skin and were about the size of a child, with a crooked nose and pointed ears. In other words, like a classical goblin.

If it was one on one, even a child could win… That was what they said, but I had a different view. This was a serious battle where your life was at stake. The ones I had met were all hostile and showed a clear will to kill that was different from the Horned Rabbits. It was hard not to be frightened by such pure malice, and I could do nothing but run away.

“Yes, I am scared of goblins. But I want to overcome that feeling. And I need your help.”

Gein’s expression finally became more serious.

“But you’re not an Adventurer or even a hunter. Surely there’s no need to force yourself to fight?”

“I will have no choice but to enter the forest eventually. And there is no guarantee that I will always be able to run away. Perhaps there will be no need to fight, but I do think that I have to be able to.”

“Well, you may be right. And if you are going to say that much, I won’t say no. If we’re just dealing with goblins, then I can do it alone, but… What do you think, Zuky?”

“No, I’ll go with you. I have a feeling that I will be able to see something amusing.”

And then they burst into laughter once again. Now I hoped that they would die from it.

The next day, I entered the forest with them. My current equipment was a shield in my left hand and a spear in my right.

I had used my carpentry skills to connect two boards together for the shield, which after cutting it so that it was round, I covered it with two layers of sturdy Fang Boar leather. I was rather proud of the piece. I suppose it would have been considered a small round shield?

The spear was given to me by Zuky. At first it was a long spear that I wielded with both hands so that I could attack trapped prey from a safe distance, but it was shortened after that, so I could use it while holding a spear.

Stay behind the shield and poke at a distance. The concept was, ‘life is important.’

The downside of this was that I was using both hands, so I could not gather anything while moving. It was very inconvenient. I was jealous of those with a sword and sheath.

As for my torso, I wore a leather jacket, as leather armor was expensive. And it stayed closed with a belt instead of buttons. My trousers were ordinary cloth, but the knees had protectors made of carved wood, kind of like the ones used in soccer.

“Are you going off to war?”

“Yes. Against the goblins.”

Gein had a good chuckle, but this was a fight that I did not want to lose.

However, I did agree that this was not fitting gear for an actual Adventurer.

Zuky then guided us to an area where goblins were known to appear frequently.

“There are a lot of herbs and mountain vegetables here.”

“Even in the village, they tell you not to go here, don’t they? It’s because they suspect that the goblin nest is in this area. But we’ve never been able to find it.”

So that was why it felt like a hidden spot. We continued to go deeper into the forest until Zuky, who was in the lead, signed to us to stop and crouch low.

As we hid in the shadows for a while, sounds could be heard from a short distance away.

“Gugya!”

“Gugya-gya!”

Voices. They were difficult to see in the forest due to their skin, but they were goblins! Multiple goblins. Zuky approached us silently and gave us orders.

“There are three in that direction. Two have clubs and one has a sword. I’ll take the one in the back with the club. You two take the ones in the front.”

He could see very well from this distance! And so we separated and I turned towards the goblins. A second later, I had no idea where Zuky even was. Hunters were amazing!

“I’ll take the club. You do the sword.”

Said Gein. I didn’t like it.

“Hey, wait a minute. Shouldn’t it be the other way around?”

“It’s a goblin sword. Something that brittle won’t cut through anything. It’s the blunt attacks of a club that are dangerous.”

“I see. I suppose you’re right.”

But we had talked too much, and the goblins noticed our presence.

Just as I got up and moved forward, an arrow pierced into the head of the goblin in the far back. A headshot. Amazing.

“Gugya?”

As one of the goblins looked back in confusion to see its comrade hit the ground, Gein rushed forward and cut through the belly of the club wielder, cleaving him in half.

“Huh?”

“Gugya-gya?”

The only ones momentarily stunned by this were me and the last goblin.

Gein’s weapon was a long sword known as a bastard sword, but I didn’t expect it to do that…

“Don’t stand their idly. Come on, do it!”

Said Gein, and I frantically raised my shield. But now that it was three against one, the goblin tried to escape, but the other two blocked its path.

In the end, it decided to take its chances and attack the one that looked the weakest; me. I blocked its sword as it swung from the right. Then I tried to counter with a thrust of my spear, but the shield was in the way.

The goblin aggressively banged on my shield with its sword, and I desperately blocked each attack. But, what was this? The feeling that things weren’t going well. I had to move more than usual to defend, and I couldn’t counter.

The intensity of the goblin was making me move back. Suddenly, there was a slapping sound and the goblin and I moved away from each other.

Apparently, Gein had clapped his hands together behind me. I stepped away from the Goblin and then faced it again. That was when I realized something.

This goblin was holding the sword with its left hand! I see… It was left-handed!

The goblin started to swing its sword at me again, but this time I had the shield held ready, and I swiped it to the left in the direction that the sword was coming.

Clang!

The sword and shield clashed, and we moved away from each other. The goblin lost its momentum, and the shield was no longer in my way. And we were at the perfect distance apart so that his sword couldn’t reach me!

I thrust the spear out with my right hand. And with a thud, it pierced into the goblin’s throat.

“Gya!”

It let out one cry before falling backwards. It didn’t move again after that, but I pierced it through the chest once more, just to be sure. It didn’t budge.

“Alright!”

I pumped my fist in the air, but Gein and Zuki just exploded with laughter, and had to hold their stomachs for quite a while after that.