Guess I shouldn’t be too surprised. It makes sense that they’d limit rookie quests to the lowest-level monsters, I thought.
After managing to take down an orc in Patia Forest, goblins didn’t seem like the best enemy to measure my capabilities against, but from what the receptionist said, they were really my only option.
I was a little curious about the fetch quests, but I was eager to start with a monster-hunting quest first.
“That’s all right. I’d be happy to take a goblin extermination quest. I’ll take the one on the northwest abandoned road,” I said.
“Understood. The goblin extermination quest on the northwest abandoned road will reward you with one silver coin to defeat five goblins. Please note that you aren’t limited to a maximum of five, however. For every additional goblin you defeat, you’ll be rewarded with two coppers.”
“How will you know how many I’ve defeated?”
“Monster counts are tallied by the number of left ears you bring back, so please don’t forget to cut them off after you defeat the goblins.”
“Got it.”
“Here’s your adventurer card back. Best of luck on your adventures.”
And with that, I’d become an adventurer and accepted my very first quest.
According to the receptionist, I’d be able to get two extra copper coins for every additional goblin that I killed. Having only ever slain an orc, I had no idea how many goblins I’d be able to defeat (or even how many I’d encounter on the abandoned road), but based on my calculations, I’d have to defeat at least ten to start building up some savings.
As long as I stayed at the rookie level, it seemed like I’d have to live a pretty bare-bones lifestyle if I wanted to keep my belly full.
I did have a buffer from the stolen items I’d sold, but I resolved myself to be as frugal as possible. As I left the Adventurers’ Guild, I psyched myself up to meet my goal of defeating ten goblins today.
But before leaving Realzahd, I knew I needed to stop by the armory on the main road and buy some equipment. I was only after the bare minimum for now: just some leather armor and a leather shield.
I also ended up finding a slightly rusted iron sword that had been thrown haphazardly in the bargain bin, so I decided to buy that too.
It was a pretty pitiful haul, but it still wound up costing me a small fortune of nine silver coins in total.
Unsurprisingly, despite the poor shape it was in, the sword had been the most expensive item—six whole silvers. I kind of wanted to kick myself for nabbing my father’s worn-out pocket watch from my family home instead of one of the countless swords I could have gone for instead.
Oh well. What’s done is done, I thought.
After stopping by the store, I set off down the highway, heading north of Realzahd until I came upon an abandoned road, and made my way down it, on the alert for goblins.
The abandoned road—though I wasn’t sure you could really even call it a “road”—was so overgrown with weeds that it barely accommodated the shoulder width of one person. It was more like a game trail at this point.
I’d assumed from the receptionist’s description of the three monster-hunting quests that the abandoned road would offer the best visibility, and that’s why I’d chosen it, but I was beginning to appreciate that “best” didn’t necessarily mean “good.” Now that I thought about it, anywhere that goblins hung out was unlikely to have great visibility or be frequented by humans, after all.
From what I’d heard, there was every chance that I might encounter monsters other than goblins out here too. I proceeded carefully and on high alert, just like I was used to doing when I’d been living in Patia Forest.
I used to struggle to tell the difference between the rustling of wind in the brush and the rustling of a living creature. Every little sound had made me flinch with panic. After surviving for so long in the forest, though, I’d had no choice but to learn and commit the difference to memory.
I focused my ears completely on searching for any creature noises as I walked down the road, tuning out the sounds of wind just like I’d done when I’d tracked the orc through the forest.
That was when I heard something.
It would often take a whole day of walking around Patia Forest to find any signs of living creatures, so it felt like a real stroke of luck to come across something here after only just beginning my trek down the abandoned road.
Footsteps sounded ahead and to the right of me.
The creature seemed not to be aware of my presence yet. I could hear it pushing its way through the grass as it walked, taking absolutely no precautions.
I’d bungled my surprise attack on the orc, so I was determined to land one successfully this time.
Careful to cushion my footsteps, I crouched down so I wouldn’t brush against the encroaching weeds and began to close in on the creature. Now that I was lower to the ground, I gave up hopes of spotting it with my eyes, but I could still hear it. I let the sound of its movements guide me until I’d positioned myself practically right in front of it.
I knew I’d have to leave the road now if I wanted to get any closer, and there was no way to do that silently. If I was going to launch a surprise attack, then it needed to be from here.
Fortunately, the creature still hadn’t seemed to notice me, so this was the perfect chance to catch it off guard.
I listened carefully, doing my best to pinpoint its exact location. Then, taking in a deep breath, I leaped out of hiding.
I plunged straight ahead, pushing my way through the grass as I zeroed in on my target: a green-skinned little monster with a severely hunched back, covered in dirt. Sure enough, it was a goblin—exactly the monster I needed to kill to fulfill my current quest.
The goblin was a lot slower to react than the orc I’d fought in the woods. It was almost like there was a brief lag between when it spotted me and when it turned to face me.
It brandished the wooden club it was holding in a panic, readying a defense—but it was too late.
I slashed my sword diagonally down at the goblin’s left shoulder as deep as it could go; then, riding on the momentum, I lifted it again to strike the final blow. But just as I moved to aim my blade at the monster’s heart, I realized what had happened...
My previous strike had cleaved the goblin in two.
It lay on the ground, unmoving. There was no need for a final blow.
“Okay... There’s definitely something weird going on here,” I muttered to myself as I looked down at the bisected goblin.
What I’d done to the orc, I’d assumed had been just a fluke. But for this to happen twice...it was hard to deny that, at some point, I must have gotten some kind of extraordinary powers.
Goblins were the lowest-level monsters out there, but that still didn’t explain how easily I’d just defeated one. Sure, I might have switched out my handmade weapon for a proper (albeit rusted) sword, but under normal circumstances, that shouldn’t have made enough of a difference for me to pull off a crazy move like cutting a goblin clean in two.
As I watched the goblin’s purple blood drip off of the tip of my blade, I just stood there, racking my brain.
Just then, a phrase came to me: undiscovered poisonous plants.
That’s right... I willingly ate all kinds of poisonous-looking plants when I was living in Patia Forest, I thought.
It hadn’t hit me last night when I’d been reading Otto’s book, but now, the dots were all connecting. Maybe some of those plants I’d devoured so greedily just to survive had included some yet undiscovered performance-enhancing species?
As I looked down at the goblin’s tragic corpse, I felt my lips twist into a smirk.
Now that I knew that what had happened with the orc wasn’t just a fluke, and that there were undiscovered poisonous plants out there with strong effects, I felt pretty confident that the plants I sought could be found in Patia Forest. I couldn’t say for sure, but chances were high.
I was so excited that I wanted to spring straight for Patia Forest, but I knew that I wasn’t ready for that yet. At this stage, I was still getting my bearings and building a foundation.
I approached the halved goblin and tore off its left ear, which I shoved into my leather bag. Then I continued down the abandoned road, in search of more goblins.