I Was a Sword When I Reincarnated (Web Novel)
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chapter-289
The Goblin Nest
TL: SupremeTentacle
ED: Sebas Tian
Dashing over to where the goblins had been spotted was the first thing Fran did after agreeing to exterminate them . She made sure to keep herself concealed throughout the journey so that she wouldn’t spook her foes before she found them .
“Master, how to find nest?”“We’ll probably have to either find their tracks or tail one of ’em . ”
“Got it . ”
“It might be best for us to split up . Urushi, you mind sticking around here and seeing if you can find anything?”
“Woof!”
Urushi’s nose was nothing short of impressive . I was willing to bet that he’d be able to find the goblin nest with his sense of smell alone so long as it was nearby .
“As for us, Fran, we should probably start by hunting the goblins the guard spotted . ”
“Nn . ”“Make sure you let a few live so that they can lead us back to their base . ”
“Got it . ”
It didn’t take long for us to find the goblins . They weren’t too far from where we’d encountered the last group .
“Strange . ”
“Yeah…”
“Taking break?”
“Doubt it…”
It almost looked like the goblins were investigating the rocky area, which in and of itself, was already quite odd .
To make matters even more confusing was the fact that this group of goblins were just as well armed as the last . In fact, their equipment was pretty much identical .
It was immediately clear to me that they were from the same nest as the last group . The only difference my appraisal skill informed me of was that the second group was even weaker than the first . The combination of their apparent weakness and their smaller numbers made me feel as if they were relatively low on the chain of command; they were probably just your everyday grunts .
But that raises the question . Just how well off does a horde of goblins need to be to arm every single one of its lowly grunts with this kind of equipment? Like holy shit, they’re goblins, not knights . God damn!
“It looks like they really might’ve birthed a king or something…No way they’d be this coordinated otherwise . ”
“Nn . ”
Okay, yeah, it looks like we’re going to have to find that nest and obliterate it ASAP .
“Start with the leader . If we kill it, then the rest’ll probably start running . We should probably let at least three of them live . There are ten of them, so I guess that means you can kill up to seven . ”
“Okay . ”
“Alright, let’s do this!”
“Nn!”
I teleported us behind the goblin that appeared to be in charge of the group . Fran swiftly dispatched both it and the one to its side in a single motion .
“Gyaooo!”
“Gya gya!”
“Slow . ”
The goblins realized that they were under attack and attempted to react, but they were unable to . Fran cut down another two while I roasted three with a fire spell .
All three of the remaining goblins began turning their heads and looking at their allies . Their eyes wandered back and forth between the cut up corpses and the flame-broiled corpses before they finally realized that only they had survived our assault .
“Gyahiii!”
“Gyoeeheee!”
“Hyahohiii!”
The goblins let loose what I assumed to be screams as they turned tail and began to flee . Naturally, we chose not to attack even though they’d made themselves totally vulnerable . We stealthily began to chase after them, ensuring that we remained hidden even while on the move .
None of the goblins so much as turned around as they sprinted forwards with everything they had . They were so terrified that they pissed their pants and shat themselves as they ran .
“Perfect,”said Fran .
Those mother fucking goblins! How dare they show Fran something that god damn filthy!? I swear to God that I’m going to “disinfect” the shit out of them the moment they lead us back to their nest .
The goblins couldn’t sense us, so it didn’t take too long for them to come to the conclusion that we were no longer pursuing them . They slowed themselves down to a fast walk . Though they thought they were safe, they were too terrified to stop, so they continued to advance as they fearfully gazed around .
They passed a waterskin between each other . The goblins took turns drinking from it as they interacted with each other . Their gestures were strangely human-like .
Something about this whole scenario just feels… off . I remember chasing Goblins around back when I was still exploring the Demonic Wolf’s Plains . These goblins are stupid, but the ones I met back then were even dumber . They’d randomly start playing around and napping, as if they weren’t able to focus on anything for too long .
“Master . There . ”
“Is that their base? It looks like it . ”
The nest we discovered looked like it contained somewhere in the realm of a hundred goblins . I saw a couple goblin fighters and thieves mingled in with all the others .
“There . ”
Fran directed my attention towards a specific part of the goblin base .
“Shit, is that a goblin king!? God damn, the guards were right!”
Well, at least they’re not hiding away in some cave . Them being out in the open makes getting rid of them much more convenient .
“Huh, that’s weird . They’ve all got the exact same equipment . ”
How the hell did that happen? Like, murdering a mercenary group or two isn’t nearly enough to arm an entire group of goblins with the exact same shit .
“Doesn’t matter if wipe out . ”
“Yeah, true . ”
Fran had a point . King aside, all the goblins were just negligibly weak grunts .
The three we tailed immediately ran up to the king and began making a sort of report . I couldn’t understand their language, but I didn’t need to . I knew that they were making some sort of report concerning Fran regardless .
“Well then . Looks like the goblin king’s got balls . ”
He immediately began rallying his troops once the three goblins had finished with their report . Based on his gestures, it seemed likely that the king intended to take the whole horde to Fran’s location .
“We should probably cage them up so none of them get away . ”
“Nn . Got it . ”
Fran and I both preceded by casting Thunder Wall, the spell that came with Lightning Magic’s second level . The two of us focused our magical energy to create five large walls . Specifically, Fran created two, and I created three . They came together to form a sort of pentagon, enclosing all the goblins within . The large panels of lightning suddenly popped up around the goblins . They were buzzing with electricity, and clearly had the ability to electrocute anything they touched .
“Gogogyaaaooooh!?”
“Agyaga!”
Wow, colour me impressed .
The goblin king remained rational as he ordered a subordinate to attack the walls . A goblin soldier immediately complied and smashed his axe into the electric fence, only to receive a sudden shock and collapse on the spot . Though the soldier hadn’t died, he had temporarily lost his ability to move .
We then pelted the goblins from the sky with all sorts of lightning magic . Only after they were all dead did we finally undo the cage .
“Looks like we’re done . I’mma go around absorbing all the cores . ”
“Nn . ”
“Most of their equipment got damaged by our magic, but I’m pretty sure some of it is at least still useable . ”
“Nn . Will put in storage . ”
“Yeah, might as well bring it back to the village . ”
Killing the goblins had granted Fran a significant amount of experience . It managed to push her over the threshold .
“Grats! It looks like you’ve hit level 46 . ”
“Nn!”
Fran’s level cap had changed due to her evolution, but only now did we finally actually smash through her old cap . Breaking past level 45 really did imprint a powerful sense of progression . I couldn’t wait to see Fran continue growing to the point where she would be able to overpower even the Beast Lord and everyone else on his level .
