I Am Not Goblin Slayer

Chapter 106: Talent Upgrade

After effortlessly killing the nearest Goblin, Gauss quickly darted behind the warehouse.

His clean and swift movements didn’t alarm the other Goblins.

Gauss looked toward the bonfire pile.

There were four Goblins there, grinding their blades against the stone.

Holding communal feasts after a successful hunt was a common phenomenon across cultures and races.

Now, every Goblin in the village wore an expression of joy, as though a festival was about to begin.

「Better rescue the captives first.」

Gauss gauged the distance between his position and the bonfire while also surveying the distribution of the other Goblins.

If unimpeded, a full-speed sprint would take only a few seconds.

As for why he didn’t use spells?

First, the distance was a bit too far.

Second, the Goblins, bonfire, and the human civilians were all too close together.

If he lost control, the spell might trigger an explosion and cause the fire to spread, potentially injuring people.

That said, in truly urgent situations, these trivial concerns naturally wouldn't matter.

But right now, wasn't it still manageable?

He had counted the remaining Goblins in the village—exactly half were left, about thirty in total.

To him at his current level, they weren't overly troublesome enemies.

Wake, Whitney, and Kevin had all been beaten to the point of dizziness. Listening to the harsh sound of metal scraping against stone beside them, their eyes were dull and full of fear.

Their bodies trembled uncontrollably. The spreading stench of urine under them made it impossible to tell who had wet themselves—perhaps all of them had.

The ropes cut deep into their wrists, leaving their arms bruised and unnaturally discolored.

All three of them knew what it meant to be captured by a horde of Goblins.

Especially since the Goblins had already started pouring water into the cauldron and scrubbing it clean—clearly preparing to cook.

These impatient green-skinned monsters didn't even consider keeping them alive for another day.

Kevin’s heart was full of regret. Had he known this trip would be so unlucky, he would never have left the village.

His mouth was parched.

Since his capture, those green-skins hadn’t given him a single bite of food or drop of water. Now, he felt his condition deteriorating to the extreme.

In his dazed vision, hallucinations of the past surfaced again. His parents returning from the fields, the whole family sitting around the table, sharing a meal of coarse oatmeal porridge and black bread. Though not filling, the flavor of that simple food now made him crave it desperately.

How laughable.

He was about to be cooked and eaten, yet all his mind could think of was hunger.

The primal thirst for food and water was simply impossible to suppress.

When he got thrown into the pot, maybe he could sneak in a few mouthfuls of ingredients.

If he had to die, he’d rather die full.

Kevin sighed internally.

He no longer held any hope of being rescued.

As for escaping on his own? Impossible. The three of them were tightly bound civilians—how could they possibly resist a Goblin village of dozens, especially when those creatures were armed?

Kevin's dazed gaze stared into the distance.

Suddenly, a figure seemed to intrude into his field of view.

An illusion?

He didn’t take the “hallucination” seriously.

In the few hours since his capture, he had already gone through defiance, begging, regret, helplessness, delusional fantasies of a hero coming to save him, numb acceptance of death, and finally, the thought of having one last full meal before he died.

He had seen heroes descending from the sky more than once in his mind. But every broken fantasy only plunged him into deeper despair.

「Thud!」

The illusion approached incredibly fast. In Kevin’s vision, the figure flickered across the clearing as if blinking forward.

  「Thud!」

After another second or two, the illusion had already reached just a few meters in front of him.

The stomp on the ground seemed to transmit its recoil through his backside into his body, awakening some sensation in limbs that had gone numb from being tightly bound.

This illusion feels too real… I must be really starving to the point of dizziness, unable to tell reality from delusion.

「Slash!!」

A flash of sword light.

A Goblin’s head was sent flying high.

Blood gushed from the neatly severed neck like a fountain in the town plaza, spraying outward in all directions.

「Splurt!!」

A splash of warm crimson suddenly landed on Kevin’s cheek.

The red liquid slid down his face, eventually reaching his lips and seeping through the gaps of his teeth into his mouth.

「Peh! Peh!!!」

The overwhelming stench of blood instantly caused Kevin’s brain to jolt in a frenzy, snapping his dulled senses back into clarity as though doused in cold water.

「What… is this?」

His pupils widened uncontrollably.

Under his astonished gaze, the intruder moved swiftly.

Like a dancer, he weaved and shifted with agile footwork, and the nearby Goblins, as if offering their necks to his blade, fell in rapid succession within mere breaths!

It was real! Not an illusion! Kevin was overwhelmed with elation!

Only at this moment, smelling the lingering metallic blood in the air, and sensing the close-range bloodlust and aura from the man in front of him, did Kevin, shivering all over, finally confirm everything was truly happening.

His imagination simply wasn't capable of creating such a vivid scenario.

While he trembled, unable to speak, the man’s cold cyan eyes looked down indifferently at him.

With a swift flick of his rapier, the tightly bound ropes on Kevin were instantly sliced through.

「Snap!!」

All three regained their freedom.

「Drink some water and find a safe place to hide.」

Gauss tossed over a spare waterskin.

「Thank you! Thank you!」

With a brief instruction, Gauss quickly turned his attention to the other Goblins.

Though the ambush had been swift, the bonfire and the three humans were undeniably the focus of the Goblin village at the moment, and so it didn’t take long for the commotion to spread.

Several Goblins had already grabbed the weapons by their sides.

「Magic Missile!」

But Gauss, who had already prepared, was even faster.

With his left hand, he drew out the Bone Wand from his waist.

Since this was a blitz attack, he hadn’t brought the heavier all-metal Unbreaking Staff, opting instead for the Bone Wand and rapier as his main weapons.

Three deep blue orbs rapidly formed.

And in the blink of an eye, they locked onto the Goblin Archers in the distance.

「Boom!」

The downgraded missiles shot forth like arrows loosed from a bowstring, traversing a dozen meters in an instant and arriving right before the three Goblins.

「Bang! Bang! Bang!」

Even with downgraded power, a Tier 1 Spell missile was still lethal to ordinary Goblins—especially with the 20% bonus from the 【Goblin Hunter】 title, its power was a notch stronger.

The three Goblins flew back like torn rags, dying on the spot.

From the corner of his eye, Gauss caught a movement—a Goblin with a spear approaching while he was busy dealing with the archers.

A flicker of thought passed through his eyes.

These Goblins… seem more daring than the ones from the last two commissions.

Even after watching their companions die instantly, they not only didn’t retreat but launched a charge without waiting for any leader’s command?

Is it hunger that drives them?

Gauss placed himself in their shoes and suddenly understood these little green-skins' emotions.

A big family was happily prepping ingredients, lighting the fire, and getting ready to cook—then a madman burst through the door and began slaughtering everyone without warning.

That meal they longed for was about to be stolen right from under their noses.

Of course they were furious.

Put simply, they were defending their food.

No worries. In this situation, a beating will do.

Gauss held the wand in one hand and the rapier in the other.

When faced with melee Goblins closing in, he instantly shifted his offensive focus to the rapier in his right hand.

「Clang!!」

He sidestepped slightly, letting the blade glide along the shaft of the Goblin’s spear.

With a flick of the wrist, the rapier twirled and slashed—cleanly severing the Goblin’s hand.

The Goblin stared blankly at the spurting wrist, just about to scream when another flash of sword light severed its throat.

Too slow!

Gauss slew the close-range Goblins with just a few strokes.

Then, his left hand’s wand flared with magic again, launching another Magic Missile that casually killed an archer Goblin aiming sneakily at the civilians.

Close or ranged—this was where he differed from many other Professionals.

Now, the remaining Goblins in the village finally sensed something was wrong.

This intruder seemed way too powerful!

Especially since many of their kin were out at the moment.

The village had only about thirty Goblins, and Gauss had already slain nearly half of them in moments.

That overwhelming numerical advantage? Just a mirage. Their low intelligence finally yielded to reason over food-guarding instinct.

This enemy was too strong! They couldn’t keep fighting!

Seeing the Goblin ranks begin to break, Gauss charged forward.

Only the strong had the right to choose their fate.

Faced with a rabble on the verge of collapse, he had to press his advantage quickly.

In the end, relying on his armor and ignoring any threats, Gauss pushed forward, enduring their desperate attacks, and quickly executed the remaining dozen Goblins!

Just as before, he didn’t spare a single Goblin Infant in the village.

「Total Monsters Killed: 335」

「Goblins Killed: 208」

Gauss stood where he was, catching his breath slightly.

Suddenly, a strange power surged within him!

A power originating from the depths of his being. 「Sufficient potential obtained from Talent Source Host: Original Goblin.」

「Initial-level Racial Talent 【Rapid Digestion】 is being upgraded!」

「Congratulations! Upgraded to Elite-level Racial Talent 【Energy Storage Gland】!」

「【Energy Storage Gland】: retains all effects of the original talent 【Rapid Digestion】 and adds the additional effect 【Storage】. You can pre-consume food to store excess energy in your body’s energy gland and rapidly replenish physical or magical stamina when needed.」

「The effectiveness of 【Energy Storage Gland】's storage depends on the talent’s strength. Continue killing Talent Source Hosts to acquire more corresponding talent potential.」