Level 1 Strongest Sage ~

We arrived at the village that requested the goblin subjugation.

A few dozen villagers were gathered at the central plaza of the town, each of them bringing things such as hoes and axes.

How weird.

They sent a request to the guild, so why were they equipped as if they were going to battle?

With this question in mind, I called out to the person standing in the middle of the gathering.

“Excuse me…”

“Hm, what? Youngster, where did you come from?”

“I am Halt. I have been dispatched from the Adventurer’s Guild of the Royal Capital.”

“...What?”

“T-They’re already here!?”

“Eh, wait. This guy here is an F-rank.”|

“What the —, isn’t that the lowest ranking for an adventurer?”

“Goblins are E-ranked monsters, right?”

“The Guild decided that there wouldn't be any problem if we, these five parties,are to fulfill the conditions. “

I introduced my comrades behind me while saying that.

“A-Are all of them your comrades!?”

“Such a huge group…”

“There’s a strong looking knight, too…”

“Village Chief, h-how much did we say we’re going to pay, again?”

“I-I just agreed with the amount that they said was enough for goblin subjugation!”

It seemed like they were having a dispute about the compensation.

By the way, our five parties came all the way here, but that didn’t mean our compensation had been increased.

We didn’t even negotiate for an increase.

That’s why the amount these villagers needed to pay didn’t change.

In return, I asked the receptionist lady to settle more guild points for us.

Instead of money, we’d be a lot happier if we could stack up a lot of guild points as soon as possible.

“Please be at ease. We just registered at the Adventurer’s Guild. That’s why our rank is low and the compensation is cheap. However, please do not worry about it. We won’t have any problems subjugating a few goblins, we have enough power for that.”

“...Sorry, but the contents of the request might change.”

“Eh”

“Actually, one of the village’s maidens had been kidnapped by the goblins.”

“A human had been kidnapped!? W-Was it inside the forest? Or was it in the vicinity of the village?”

“Just beside this village.”

“Then, the group of goblins —”

“Yeah. it has turned into quite a huge group.”

For goblins to attack humans right beside where they lived meant that they had banded together into a huge group.

This piece of information was general knowledge in this world.

“Our village isn’t wealthy enough to add to your compensation.”

The man they were calling the village chief had a gloomy expression on his face as hi gripped his hatchet tighter.

“Sorry, but can you just go back? The Guild will pay you from the deposit.”

He was telling us to leave.

There was no hint of the women and children when I looked around. Only men holding things that could be their weapons were here.

They seemed to have resigned themselves.

Ahh…So that’s how it was.

They don’t have the money, so they chose the path that would lead to the village’s destruction.

With that resolution, they were preparing to attack the goblins’ nest going forward.

I knew they already strengthened their resolve, so I was a bit apologetic, but —

To heck with that.

That route had already crumbled the moment we stepped into this village.

We would never let their village be annihilated, even if a hundred goblins were there.

We were here, after all.

“We’ll subjugate several goblins. We have received the commission to do so, after all.”

— Yeah.

If it’s just ‘several goblins’ then it was still within the scope of the commission.

9 should count as “several”, right?

And, we have 19 people and 1 beast here.

If each member defeated 9 goblins each, even if we slay up to 180 goblins, it should still be within the range of the commission, right.

Well, I doubt that they would bother with the numbers if we went past a hundred.

Was I too harsh?

But then, when I was still the Guardian Hero, I saved countless villages and towns in the entire world without expecting compensation, so this much should be fine.

The most urgent problem was the kidnapped girl.

We should rescue her as soon as possible.

“Didn’t you say that there is a maiden that had been kidnapped? Let us hurry up to save her.”

“A-Are you really gonna save us? There might be more than a hundred goblins over there…”

“We’ll just escape if the situation turns for the worse. We are adventurers, you see.”

Veteran adventurers have very sharp intuition, and they could keenly sense danger, so they wouldn’t fight against enemies that they had no power to defeat, but —

We are just noob adventurers.

It couldn’t be helped if our sense of danger wasn’t honed yet.

So, we would be up against a group of approximately a hundred goblins…

There might be goblin magicians, warriors, or even goblin lords there.

I glanced over all my comrades standing behind me while estimating the possible strength of the enemy.

Heroine and Holy Knight, Saintess, three Dragons, three Spirit Kings, etc, etc.

— Hm. We’re probably gonna be fine.

I didn’t sense any danger, too.

Our ability to sense danger might be quite low, but I got the feeling that we got this.

It would be fine.

“I see…that’s heartening. You can run off if things got dangerous, that’s fine. Can we ask you to go with us, then?”

“Please leave it to us.”

“All of you guys, listen up. This adventurer —”

“Halt.”

“Halt and his comrades agreed to help us save Reina.”

“T-Thank goodness.”

“We’ll be in your care.”

So the abducted girl’s name was Reina, huh.

We have to hurry up and save her.

Women abducted by goblins would become the breeding ‘seedplot’. It hadn’t been too long since she was taken away, but it was imperative that we hurry up.

“Tina!”

“Yes.”

Tina was waiting with the other guys at a spot a little further than us.

“Can you check the possible place where goblin-like monsters are gathered in a pack right now?”

“Hm… Ah, over there!”

Tina’s wide-ranged mana detection ability was world-class.

She spotted the goblin’s nest right away.

“It seems the goblin nest is over there.”

“Whoa, what the heck!”

“She knows where the nest is?”

“Yeah, many people did say they saw goblins over there.”

There shouldn’t be any mistake then if there were eyewitnesses.

“Excuse me. Do you have any item that belongs to Reina? It’ll be better if it is something she touched recently…”

“Reina’s things?”

“What are you gonna do with that?”

“H-How about this? She had been carrying this basket when she was kidnapped.”

Reina’s father brought a basket.

Reina had been abducted by a goblin when she was on her way to bring him lunch while he was cutting trees.

…Good enough. I thought it would work.

Recently, I discovered that I could teleport, even without the markings set beforehand at my destination, as long as I knew where I wanted to go and sense the mana waves of the people over there.

Reina wasn’t a mage, so the traces of her mana had already faded a lot, but it was still enough, just barely, for me to teleport without any problems.

“Leaffa, take everyone with you!”

“Got it. Take care, Halt.”

“Tina —”

“Of course I’m going with you, Halt-sama.”

Yup, I guessed that much.

Seemed like she already knew what I was planning to do.

“Village chief, we’re going ahead first to rescue Reina.”

“W-What?”

Goblin nests were very intricate, and it would take a lot of time to find people that were trapped inside depending on its size.

The rescue operation was far more difficult than merely annihilating the goblins.

That’s why I decided to teleport directly to where Reina was.

“Well, then, we’ll be going first. The rest of my comrades will guide you and protect you on the way.”

After saying that to the village chiefs, Tina and I teleported to where Reina was.