Hulim slowed her breathing to its shallowest rhythm, standing motionless by the path the goblin patrol was taking.
The small band of green-skinned goblins—clutching crude wooden clubs and wearing ragged grass skirts—tramped right past her, mere inches away, without the slightest inkling of her presence......
Watching the patrol fade into the distance, Hulim resisted the urge to strike and thin their ranks.
She still knew nothing about the goblins’ alarm systems; acting recklessly would only put the entire tribe on high alert.
“Still...... if they couldn’t spot me this close......”
Hulim turned her gaze toward the goblin settlement and began her next move.
......
CLANG!
“Garrr? (What was that?)”
A green-skinned goblin glanced back at the wooden shelf that had suddenly toppled over, its face twisting in confusion.
“Kreee——?! (Slacking off again!)”
Just then, a Greater Goblin strode over, roaring at the smaller goblin.
“Garrr! Garrr! Garrrrr! (No! I wasn’t! The shelf fell on its own! I was checking it!)”
The green goblin gestured frantically, pointing repeatedly at the fallen shelf.
“Garr? (The shelf fell by itself?)”
The Greater Goblin looked thoroughly baffled.
“Garrrr! (Yes! Yes!)”
The green goblin nodded vigorously.
“Gik——! (Do you take me for a fool!)”
THUD!
The Greater Goblin flew into a rage, punching the green goblin square in the head and knocking it to the ground. It then roared a string of threats at the cowering creature.
“Gik! Gik! Gah! Kreee——! (Shelves aren’t alive! They don’t just move on their own! I know you’re lazy! One more slip-up, and I’ll break your legs!)”
Trembling, the green goblin hugged its head and knelt on the ground, daring not to fight back.
Once the Greater Goblin had stormed off to cool down, the green goblin slowly climbed to its feet. It rubbed its throbbing skull, then glared furiously at the fallen shelf, grabbing its club and smashing it to splinters.
“Gah! Gah! Gah! (It’s your fault! All your fault! Why’d you have to move!)”
Wood chips flew everywhere as the shelf shattered.
Suddenly, a splinter bounced off the ground and shot toward the shadowed corner of the wall—but instead of hitting the stone, it struck something invisible mid-air and ricocheted right back.
“Garr?”
The green goblin spotted the odd bounce. It stared blankly at the corner, then gripped its club tightly and crept over cautiously.
Reaching the spot where the splinter had rebounded, it poked the air in front of it with the tip of its club.
But the wood passed straight through, meeting no resistance at all.
“Garr?”
The green goblin scratched its head in confusion, then waved its club at the empty air in frustration and turned to trudge back to its post.
This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.
Yet the moment it spun around, it froze.
A tall figure stood directly in front of it......
The green goblin’s eyes slowly traveled upward, locking onto a pair of cold, unblinking eyes staring down at it.
The green goblin’s voice died in its throat: “Gah......”
The Greater Goblin grabbed it by the neck and lifted it off the ground in one swift motion.
“Kreee——!!”
......
Elsewhere, Hulim—long gone from her previous hiding spot—let out a quiet sigh of relief.
“That was close. Almost blew my cover.”
Hiding magic had a fatal flaw: it became nearly useless once someone was actively looking for you.
After all, hiding didn’t make you truly invisible—it just blurred your form, working best in dim, shadowy environments. Even with the two nature spells bolstering her concealment, making it feel like she was wrapped in perpetual darkness, if a goblin had paid closer attention, not even their dimwitted brains would have ignored a moving patch of shadow.
“Time to keep scouting......”
Hulim scanned her surroundings carefully, her gaze quickly settling on one particular hut.
......
CREAK~!
The fence door, made from thick tree branches, swung open slowly—and then clicked shut just as quietly.
“Garr?”
A goblin standing guard outside peeked inside curiously, saw nothing out of the ordinary, scratched its head in confusion, and went back to its duties. It had no idea that the most dangerous intruder the tribe had ever seen had just snuck into its most vital building.
“So this is......”
Hulim surveyed the largest hut in the settlement.
Dozens of dried animal carcasses hung from the rafters, and piles of wild berries were stacked on the dirt floor.
She had crept through the entire camp, mapping out the sentry posts and assessing the enemy’s strength—and the situation was even worse than she’d feared. The goblins weren’t just armed with a large contingent of archers; there was more than one Goblin Mage among them. Most alarmingly of all, the ratio of Greater Goblins to regular goblins was staggeringly high. Of the hundred and thirty-odd goblins in the tribe, over thirty were Greater Goblins!
Normally, in a goblin tribe, the ratio of Greater Goblins to common green goblins hovered around one to ten. Such an abnormal concentration could only be due to the influence of their chieftain.
Chances were, this tribe’s Goblin Lord had already undergone a power boost, ascending to C+ Rank......
If that was the case, taking this tribe down would normally require the Adventurer’s Guild to assemble four or five C-Rank parties—or more.
“A C+ Rank Goblin Lord, huh......”
Hulim had gathered all the intelligence she needed—all except for the most crucial detail about the Goblin Lord itself.
She’d assumed the largest hut would be the chieftain’s quarters, but it turned out to be nothing more than a food storage depot.
“......No. Wait a minute. This place might be more useful than I thought.”
Staring at the goblins’ hoarded supplies, a plan began to form in Hulim’s mind.
......
Over an hour later.
A loud horn blast echoed through the goblin settlement.
“Gah! Gah!”
“Garrr!”
“Gik!”
A mob of goblins streamed into the food storage hut.
Under the watchful eyes of two Greater Goblins, the lowliest green goblins began hauling supplies outside.
“Gah!”
At the door, one Greater Goblin kicked a slow-moving green goblin in the back. A half-dried horned rabbit tumbled out of the smaller goblin’s arms and hit the ground.
The green goblin started to pick it up.
“Kreee——!”
The Greater Goblin roared, and the green goblin yelped and scurried away, too terrified to retrieve the fallen meat.
“......”
The Greater Goblin glanced furtively around. When it saw that the other Greater Goblin’s attention was focused inside the hut, it edged toward the discarded rabbit. Reaching it, it quickly snatched the meat off the ground and stuffed it into its palm.
Then it peeked nervously back into the hut, confirming it hadn’t been seen. With a greedy grin, it opened its jaws wide and took a huge bite out of the dried rabbit.
“Garr?”
But as it chewed, its brow furrowed in confusion. It stared down at the meat in its hand, trying to figure out why it tasted so odd.
Just then, the other Greater Goblin noticed its strange behavior and turned around.
Panicked, the first Greater Goblin shoved the half-eaten rabbit behind its back, narrowly avoiding getting caught red-handed.
In the fluster of the moment, its confusion about the rabbit’s taste was forgotten entirely.
The goblins carried the supplies to the clearing in the center of the settlement, where a bonfire blazed and large iron cauldrons had been set up over the flames.
As the food was dumped into the cauldrons and skewered onto spits,
“Gah!”
“Gah!”
“Gah!”
“......”
Over a hundred goblins gathered around the fire, led by several Goblin Mages, and began chanting in unison at the top of their lungs.
“Kreee-ohhhh——!”
A deep, thunderous roar cut through the chanting. A colossal goblin emerged from one of the huts, clad in heavy, dented armor and wielding a massive stone battleaxe.
The Goblin Lord had finally appeared.
