## Chapter 26 – Goblin Extermination
We literally scoured the mountain, searching for any trace of goblins. Sant, who had set out with such bravado, turned out to be a complete amateur, offering no help whatsoever in tracking the goblins. Tracking is an advanced skill, not something anyone can just do.
But damn it, that’s not the problem. Why does he stride ahead so confidently when he doesn’t even know what he’s doing? He looks so intimidating that I can’t even say anything. If I were to say something and he turned serious, pointing his spear at me, I’d be screwed. Besides, a sword can’t beat a spear.
In the end, we continued our search until the sun was high in the sky, but we couldn’t find a single goblin. They must be living together in a cave somewhere, but the mountain is so vast that it’s not easy to find them.
It felt like searching for a needle in a haystack, or something close to it. We tried to find goblin footprints or disturbed bushes, but nothing easily caught our eye.
I even started to think it might be better to wait until the goblins raided the crops and then secretly follow them. Yeah, that seems like a better idea.
“Ah, I’m tired. Let’s eat something first.”
If we kept climbing the mountain like this, I was afraid I’d collapse and die, foaming at the mouth. We’ve moved a lot, so it’s time for a break.
“…Alright.”
Sant, who had been silently leading the way through the mountain, said that.
I turned my head and looked at Meria and Gibson, and they nodded in agreement, so I immediately plopped down on a nearby rock.
The strenuous climb had made my back ache. Sweat was already soaking my forehead. A burning thirst rose up, so I opened my canteen and gulped down the water.
“I thought we’d find them quickly, but they’re harder to spot than I thought.”
“W-well, we should be able to find them by the end of the day.”
Gibson and Meria also found places to sit down. We each took out the food we had brought. Unlike me, who only brought tasteless dry rations, the other party members had brought jerky and other things. As a poor person, I couldn’t help but be incredibly jealous.
The dry rations I usually eat are biscuits that have been compulsively baked and baked until they’re hard, making them highly preservable. I’m not kidding, I call them “things” because they’re closer to objects than food.
First of all, they taste terrible, and it’s hard to even chew them without water. But they fill you up, and they’re cheap and easy to carry, so they’re basically my main food source. It’s human feed itself.
“Oh, this is edible.”
Meria, who had taken off the shield she wore on her back and leaned it against a tree, reached out and picked a black berry.
I’d seen the berry a few times, but I didn’t know it was edible. It looked so black that I thought it might give me a stomachache if I ate it, so I’d just ignored it. Just in case, I asked Meria.
“Oh? You can eat that?”
“What? You didn’t know? This berry is just a sweet fruit.”
At those words, I eagerly picked a berry myself. I was so desperate for fruit and sugar right now that I had to suppress the urge to devour it, and I took a bite. The feeling of the juice bursting in my mouth was nice.
“…It’s not that sweet, though.”
But unlike what Meria said, it tasted more sour than sweet. Maybe my taste buds weren’t stimulated by this level of sweetness because I’d been eating so much sugar-laden food from modern Earth.
“Don’t you feel a subtle sweetness?”
“It just tastes sour to me… Isn’t it just sour?”
“Hmm, that’s strange?”
Anyway, since it’s fruit, it might be full of vitamins and other nutrients, so I ate them all on the spot. If the human body becomes deficient in vitamin C, you’ll get scurvy and eventually die. Nutritional supplements had to be taken from time to time for survival.
Still, having fruit is dozens of times better than just eating dry rations. I’ll have to keep picking them whenever I get the chance.
“Well, it tastes good.”
Come to think of it, the shield.
That shield that Meria leaned against the tree. The shield was an excellent defensive tool with only one drawback: it was a pain to carry around. I was thinking about buying one myself, so I decided to ask Meria about it.
“Hey, Meria. That shield.”
“Huh? Shield?”
“It looks pretty good. Can I touch it?”
“Sure. Go ahead.”
This round shield was the perfect size to defend the body.
“Hmm… It’s not heavy.”
When I picked it up, it wasn’t that heavy, so I thought I could carry it on my back. When I stood up and took a stance, it definitely covered my upper body. I felt like my safety was guaranteed when I was behind the shield.
When safety is guaranteed, confidence naturally rises, and increased confidence has a positive effect on combat power. Just covering my body with the shield seemed to increase my attack power.
After all, offense is the best defense.
“It’s good. Did you learn shield techniques separately?”
I asked Meria. Like a sword, you need to learn from someone to use a shield well.
“Ah, there was a retired soldier in my hometown. Because of the monster attacks, he taught the villagers how to use weapons and shields. He was like an instructor, and all the villagers learned how to use shields from him.”
“A retired soldier in your hometown? That’s a rare opportunity. That’s a good environment.”
“Right? I’m making a living as an adventurer with what I learned back then.”
No wonder she’s an E-rank adventurer even though she’s a woman. If she learned combat skills from a professional soldier who makes a living from war, she would definitely have a differentiated skill. I savored the feeling of holding the shield and then leaned it back against the tree.
“I’m done eating.”
The meal and rest time of about 30 minutes was over. When I saw Sant getting up, saying, “Then let’s get up,” a thought suddenly flashed through my mind.
As soon as Sant got up, he started to get ready to climb the damn mountain again. He seemed to firmly believe that climbing the mountain was the only way to find the goblins.
I stopped him as he was about to take a vigorous step.
“Wait a minute.”
“Hmm?”
“Now that I think about it, I don’t think we need to go any deeper.”
“What do you mean?”
I said, my head finally starting to work a little after putting some food in my mouth.
“If the goblins are going to raid, their base must be near the village. If the cave is too far away, it’ll take them forever to transport the crops they stole. I think it would be better to search the lowlands near the village than to go higher up.”
I thought it was a pretty plausible deduction. In the morning, my head was foggy, I was hungry, and it was hard to climb the mountain, so I couldn’t think of this. Instead of aimlessly climbing the mountain, we should be searching based on logical judgment.
After all, people have to use their brains. I was convinced by my own words.
“I think so too.”
Gibson chimed in. If it sounds right to that young mind, then the credibility goes up.
“…Why didn’t you say that sooner?”
Meria also agreed, as if she had gained a great realization.
“More than that, isn’t it a problem that no one thought of this? We climbed up for nothing.”
“Then we should go down.”
“Let’s just count it as exercise.”
When the party members mostly agreed to go down, Sant said with a solemn expression.
“You’re right. Let’s go down.”
We immediately started descending the mountain.
Unlike climbing up, going down was quick.
I tried to think from the goblins’ point of view as much as possible. They know how to use their limited intelligence, they’re small, and their stamina is weaker than humans. If those guys were to raid human crops, where would it be reasonable to dig a cave?
If the raids happen at night, and their eyesight isn’t any better than humans, then it’s probably somewhere where the village is clearly visible…
…
Damn it, I have no idea.
How am I supposed to know that?
If I knew that, I’d be Kim Goblin, not Kim Katte.
With some pointless contemplation, we searched the mountain again. Our current location was close enough to the farmland that we could see it with the naked eye. However, it was overgrown with bushes and the terrain was uneven, so it was the kind of place that wouldn’t be easily noticed from over there.
It’s the kind of place where they could be…
That’s when it happened.
“Huh? That cave over there. Doesn’t it look suspicious?”
Meria tapped me on the back with her hand.
“Look over there.”
“Where are you talking about?”
“No, over there. That way.”
Since I couldn’t find it, Meria grabbed my head with both hands and pointed me in the right direction. She’s more comfortable with skinship than I thought… No, that’s not it. When I looked in the direction Meria had moved my head, there was a cave that looked like it was the place.
“Oh, you have a good eye. It looks like that’s it.”
“Right, right? It looks like that’s it, right?”
“That’s right.”
I called Sant and Gibson.
“Sant, Gibson, it looks like Meria has found the target.”
They also looked at the cave that Meria had found and nodded. But just looking at the entrance, it didn’t look like a proper cave, so it would be difficult to explore the inside.
“Isn’t there a possibility that it’s a kobold cave?”
Gibson said cautiously. It was a valid point, but it was short-sighted.
I said to him.
“It could be, but if there was a kobold cave where the goblins are, they would be fighting each other so fiercely that the village would know about it.”
“What about the possibility of an owlbear’s nest?”
“Huh? Owlbear? What’s that? Is there such a thing? I’ve never heard of it.”
Owlbear? What is that? Just looking at the “bear” in the name, I had a feeling that it was a terribly ferocious and scary monster. If so, it’s a monster that E-rank adventurers like us can’t handle.
If there’s such a thing, shouldn’t we run away right now?
“No, you’re supposed to be from a nomadic background, but why don’t you know so much? You don’t know owlbears?”
“What’s an owlbear?”
“The entrance to the cave is too small to be an owlbear’s nest. It can’t be that.”
“Is that so?”
Gibson seemed convinced by Meria’s explanation. More than that, what’s an owlbear! I need to fill out my monster encyclopedia quickly! Sant kindly explained to my anxious self.
“An owlbear is a large, powerful bipedal monster covered in feathers. Its head looks like a bird, and its eyes are large, so its eyesight is good. It’s even a terrifying predator with very good night vision. But more than anything, there’s no way there would be one near the village. If there were, there would be several deaths, so there’s no way the village wouldn’t know.”
“I, I see. Thank you for the explanation.”
I’m learning a lot of useful tips today.
We carefully headed towards the cave. The area around the cave was hidden by vegetation and bushes, making it a good place to hide. And there were several busy footprints around the entrance.
“These are…”
“Footprints. Looking at the size and shape, it looks like goblins.”
Meria examined the footprints and declared that they were goblin footprints.
If she says it’s right, it’s right.
I think it’s right too.
I stuck close to the wall and peeked inside the cave. The cave looked a bit deep. The size of the entrance was a little less than 2m, so it seemed difficult to swing a sword inside. Just going in recklessly… Frankly speaking, it’s not a very recommendable method.
In narrow and dark places like caves and dungeons, the human physique acts as a disadvantage. Rather, the small goblins would be more advantageous. Especially if it’s inside their territory. Even a dog eats half of it in its own home.
I asked Sant, who seemed to be the most experienced of the group.
“Sant. What do you think is the best thing to do? Exploring the inside recklessly seems a bit dangerous, to be honest.”
“Set it on fire.”
“Excuse me?”
