Vol 1 Chapter 20 (1/2)
LEVEL 1: A Whisper, an Aria, a Prayer, an Awakening
Chapter 20: Not-Quite-Glories of the Goblin Slayers
They got up with the six o’clockready for the day At eight o’clock, it was to Altana’s northern gate to meet with Mary, and then off towards Da of the area was still incooblins
At their level now, they could take on groups of up to three—not without difficulty, but at least without it being overly risky The exception hen this included a light and agile “evader” goblin With those they had to be extra cautious Also, froed weapons; usually crude short bows But arrows shot fro power, and so weren’t anything to be overly worried about
Crossbohat they had to be wary of A well-placed shot frooblins were also so it a huge mistake to underestimate them
The upper lioblins Even so, they chose to pass up groups of four unless the fighting conditions were exceedingly favorable Groups of five they pretended to not have even seen, and when goblins asseroups of six or oblin family territory—or clan territory, or whatever These areas would be full of large groups and trying to take on one group was like walking into a den of not one pride of sleeping lions, but several
Goblins that wandered around alone were usually poorly equipped and poorly arhly valuable items hidden in their pouches No one would think to steal fro to be poor, perhaps
And once a day, every day, they went there
Goblins could be categorized into two major types: the ones who stayed put, and the ones who roamed They were the latter typeThey could be found there only every so often When Haruhiro and the others watched thee to take action would be al But they couldn’t Noasn’t the time They had to be patient
It’s not as if there was anything stopping the in the Daroups to take theth before they took on the offensive
Lastly, though it wasn’t every day—when they returned to Altana, the teao for any specific purpose, but just to drink and talk Mary never really said much, but she was a thousand ti Ranta
Every time they were at Sherry’s, at least one or two other Crimson Moon members would approach to ridicule the, Goblin Slayers,” or “Having fun in Damro, Goblin Slayers?”
Ranta would always shoot back with a shut up! but Haruhiro knew if he got upset every ti would never end And really, the nickname didn’t even bother Haruhiro thatto it
The Goblin Slayers Not bad Not bad at all They would becooblin slayers in all of Crimson Moon
It was goblins the day after that, and goblins the day after that one too Goblins, goblins, goblins, goblinsgoblinsgoblins In the beginning, all the goblins looked the same, but after a while Haruhiro could start to tell individuals apart from each other He noticed that the vast majority of those they encountered were male, with females hardly anywhere to be found
According to Mary, the oblins as wives, dwelling in the newer parts of Damro
“Man, I want a harem like that for myself too…”
“I’d feel bad for feoblins if they were in your harem, Ranta,” said Haruhiro
“Stupid Haruhiro!” Ranta barked “Didn’t you know? Even goblins find me irresistible beyond irresistible beyond irresistible! Don’t insult Ranta, the Wandering Irresistible King!”
“Weird… for an Irresistible King, all the serving girls at the tavern sure have a way of thoroughly ignoring you when you flirt with them-yan,” Yume remarked
“Er… Uenerals can lose a battle once in a while…”
“Oh, I see that even the Irresistible King can be resisted-yan… even though Ranta’s the irresistible beyond irresistible beyond irresistible of Irresistible Kings,” Yume mused
“Quit it with the ‘irresistible beyond irresistible’! You’re saying that ‘cause you just don’t get how irresistible I aet it!” Ranta turned to Mary angrily “Mary! If you had no choice but to choose one of the three of us guys here, ould you pick? OF COURSE IT WOULD BE ME!”
“I would choose Mogzo,” came Mary’s smooth reply
“What—!” Ranta squeaked
“M-zo stared in wide-eyed disbelief, more astonished than embarrassed
“Huh?” Haruhiro looked blankly frozo to Mary several times
Yuht while shi+horu blinked repeatedly, her eyes never leaving Mary
“Oy! Oy-oy-oy-oy-oy-oy-oy!” Ranta would have bitten his own tongue off if he’d oy-ed any faster “What?! Why?! Mogzo over me? No way! Not possible!”
“He’s big and char,” Mary said, calm and collected as ever
“Size?! Size doesn’t matter! No way it can possibly zo! What the fuck!”
“Too bad for you, Irresistible King,” Yume said
“Quit rubbing it in and calling , Bitsy boobs!”
Haruhiro was shocked that he too had lost to Mogzo So Mary wasn’t the type who cared about appearance alone Maybe it was because she looked at her own gorgeously featured face in the mirror every day, so she didn’t seek the same level of beauty in others But it wasn’t like either Ranta or Haruhiro were good-looking either, so looks probably didn’t factor in this particular case anyway
Haruhiro’s looks and intellect were about as mediocre as mediocre could be, but he didn’t lack self-confidence when it caht theet cocky, he told himself He wasn’t like Renji or Manato, or even Mary, who all possessed… things he didn’t
Before, when Manato was still alive, he had let Haruhiro play piggyback and get carried along Now though, it was like Haruhiro was a wobbly legged toddler cu-uy like Haruhiro, overconfidence meant failure hell, he could fail even if he wasn’t overconfident At the very least, he needed to be on his toes at all times
As for ood day they would earn about ten silvers overall, which meant he pocketed two It see so in that cheap inn for Crimson Moon members He kept the money he spent on food under twenty capas a day, and whatever remained, he used for himself or for the party
There were two other things that necessitated a monetary investment, and those were equipment and skills Haruhiro had purchased for himself a secondhand vest, protective waistband, and forearuards All were crafted froht and flexible so as to not iear gave was ical boon than real physical protection, but a little hts was important too
As for his dagger, he had no intention of getting a new one yet He had gotten used to the feel of his old one, and if he took it to a se on it Any extra et his equipment
Mogzo was atte he had wanted most: plate armor In reality, proper plate ared for its wearer, but asking an arolds at the very least Of course that was an i used and took theet the size adjusted And even this cost several tens of silvers per piece
So far, he had a breastplate and backplate, shoulder pauldrons, vareaves that covered his shi+ns to the top of his foot All of those he wore over his chain the barbute from before His blade, still the sa quite worn down; it would have to be replaced soon
Ranta had bought himself chainmail and, for soht it was cool because it had Skulheill’s eotten himself a helm shaped like an upside-down bucket, which apparently he liked, but was just plain weird to everyone else—this he wore to fights He had also stusword at the ht it on impulse, which left him with utterly zero funds
Stupid Incredibly stupid thing to do, Haruhiro had thought
Yuotten hardened leather armor for her upper and lower body, and Haruhiro had to adotten herself a hooded cloak, which made her overall appearance very Hunter-like indeed
The uild were so worn, tears were opening up all over the place, so she got herself a new set Her staff reic, unlike the other schools of ic, was not affected by the quality of the staff In fact, shadow ic didn’t require a staff at all shi+horu had also learned a new spell, [PHANTOM SLEEP]
Haruhiro had asked Master Barbara teach hizo had learned [WAR CRY], and Ranta had picked up [JUKE STAB] and [PROPEL LEAP] Yume learned [SHARP SIGHT] which improved her accuracy with the bow and also let her avoid inco attacks with a swiftness akin to pit rats Mary was already heads and shoulders above everything else in terms of both ability and experience
There was no doubt that their fighting potential as a party had gone up, but by how much?
They had found a band of five goblins in as once a s was half cruone, but remains of the furnace, anvil, and other tools still remained Haruhiro and the others had come to this place many times before; sometimes for a work break, other tioblins there
It seeoblins who lived in the new part of Dahts for supreoblins, those who lost were no longer considered part of the group, and were banished In other words, Old Tohere the exile goblins lurked
Those five goblins occupying the abandoned smithy nownewco enough, stake a territorial claiht be intending to use what re as a base
Haruhiro finished scouting the area and returned to where the others aiting, a little ways away
“Let’s try it,” Haruhiro proposed “There’s five of the chainmail and is armed with a crossbow The others are equipped with leather arot a short sith a buckler, the other two have a hatchet and a sword I think the crossbow goblin’s probably the leader It’ll be a tough fight, but it ood chance to test ourselves…”