I Returned as a God

Chapter 6 – The Goblin Village (2)

The Goblin Village was the dungeon with the lowest difficulty level, and therefore, it was also called the Practice Dungeon. The goblins that were standing guard had small builds, and more than anything, they were considerably thin.

The goblins in my memories were, with the exceptions of hobgoblins,monsters with fairly thick muscles and were over 2 meters in height. They were also very comfortable handling their weapons.

“Hey, don’t get in the way.”

After he spotted me leaning forward to take a look, Choi Min-hyuk pushed me out of the way. I almost fell over, luggage and all, but I just barely managed to find my balance before that happened.

“There’s an alright spot on the outskirts of the forest. I think we should mark out our territory around there.”

The forest wasn’t that large, and just as Lee Ye-eun had said, we found an empty open area in its outskirts.

I put down the luggage and took in my surroundings.

The goblin village was the only thing within the small forest, and there was an ideally placed empty area on the outskirts of it.

‘This is almost too perfect.’

No matter how you looked at it, this setup was structured with the Hunters entering the dungeon in mind. It was obvious who’d done something like this.

‘Those guys have such bad taste.’

I tightly clenched my fist. At that moment, I sensed a presence. It was a goblin. It seemed that the others had caught on as well.

“I got it!”

“Wait…”

Choi Min-hyuk grabbed his sword and lunged at the goblin without giving anyone a chance to respond.

‘Elsion’, the god that Choi Min-hyuk followed, was one of the gods that dealt with fire.

When I’d searched him up on the internet, I’d found that he was a pretty famous god. Choi Min-hyuk’s blade lit up with flickering flames as he ran towards the goblin.

After seeing the flames, the goblin stepped slightly backwards.

Right before the goblin decided that it was too dangerous to attack alone and turned to flee, Choi Min-hyuk ran in close and cut off the goblin’s arm. The huge greatsword sliced cleanly through its arm. The goblin screamed and staggered backwards.

The goblin had lost an incredible amount of blood, but it raised its weapon. It seemed to have realized that there was no possibility of escape. At the same time, an arrow flew out from the direction of the tent and hit the goblin squarely in the middle of its head.

The arrow exploded the moment that it rammed into the goblin. As the goblin’s head exploded, Choi Min-hyuk used his greatsword to block the spray of blood from hitting him.

Choi Min-hyuk went to nag at Lee Ye-eun, who had shot the arrow.

“Hey, can’t you kill them more cleanly? Blood splattered all over me!”

“That’s because you didn’t kill it fast enough.”

“Hah, let’s not fight. There’s nothing good that can come of fighting amongst ourselves.”

“Other goblins might come to attack if they smell the corpse or blood.”

At Nam Woon-ik’s words, Kim Tae-woon lightly shrugged his shoulders.

“I’ll take care of the corpse.”

“Do it neatly and thoroughly, got that?”

Choi Min-hyuk sheathed his greatsword and continued to fume. Even before we’d entered the dungeon, I’d heard countless insults from Choi Min-hyuk about how I was talentless and useless and unable to help, but he’d barely spoken a word to me since we’d set up the tent.

I thought it was probably because he’d realized that it was much easier to treat me like an invisible man instead of getting constantly angry at me.

Kim Tae-woon put the goblin’s corpse into a sack. I met Kim Tae-woon’s eyes as he hoisted the sack with the corpse inside over his shoulder.

“Want to come with me?”

“Yeah, why not?”

After hearing everyone else speak so informally, I naturally slipped into informal speech as well.

Choi Min-hyuk clicked his tongue before disappearing inside of the tent, and the remaining two people didn’t pay any real attention to me and Kim Tae-woon.

To dispose of the goblin’s corpse, we headed towards a small stream that was a bit further away from the open area. After throwing the body into the water at an appropriate place, we washed our hands in the stream.

“Before this, the others told me that you’d been one-sidedly trashed in the mock battles, so I thought you really were useless. But it looks like you know how to fight after all.”

Upon hearing Kim Tae-woon’s words, I lightly scratched the back of my neck.

The majority of Hunters registered with guilds immediately after they Awakened. Even if they weren’t official Association Hunters, they were able to receive various benefits and support from the guild during their trainee period.

There, instead of the basic education that was usually given by the Association, they could learn on-site practical skills that could really be used to full effect in the dungeons.

‘A game that’s unfair from the start.’

It wasn’t unfair, I was just an exception.

Though I knew that, I had absolutely no intention of trying to worship a god, no matter what.

Even now, after entering the dungeon, I still had doubts about the system, and at the same time my discomfort hadn’t disappeared either.

Whatever the case, it was clear that among the four other members of the team, Kim Tae-woon was the one that stood out as especially skilled.

He’d noticed that I was able to fight just by looking at the stance with which I’d gripped my dagger. It wasn’t polite to leave him waiting for a response like this.

“I’ve learned a little bit.”

“I don’t think it’s just a little. I won’t bother to pry too hard. Still, I’d like it if you don’t just poke around from the side like you did this time. I’m just saying this because I think it’s unconscionable to let yourself get carried by others if you also know how to fight.”

“I didn’t think anyone would be paying attention.”

In fact, excluding Choi Min-hyuk, the other two weren’t even interested in whether or not I was raising a dagger.

“Even if you’re the extra here, you’re still included in the head count. If we clear the dungeon, we have to retake the test anyways if there’s a death, so of course I’m paying attention. On top of that, even if you’re talentless, that doesn’t make you not an Awakened like the rest of us, doesn’t it?”

“I don’t think others usually tend to think that way.”

I fully understood how much contempt the Awakened who didn’t have an affiliation with the gods that were worshiped in this dimension received.

Looking at it from their position, Kim Tae-woon’s words would surely be received as heresy.

“Yes, that’s true. But… after seeing Choi Soo-hyun fight, I found myself changing my mind. Even though Choi Soo-hyun wasn’t initially unaffiliated like you. Because the talentless are still Hunters in the end. And if you can use a weapon like a dagger, then you can kill plenty of low-tier monsters, like goblins, even without skills. Honestly, those who go as far as to use their skills to kill a goblin are the true idiots.”

I got the sense I knew who Kim Tae-woon was talking about. If you looked at how powerless the goblin that had been killed was, Choi Min-hyuk’s fire and Lee Ye-eun’s exploding skills were an excessive use of force.

I was relieved that there was at least one person who I was able to get through to.

“I’m just curious, but is that guy really that strong?”

I’d tried to verify the rumors and various strange theories on the Internet that wrapped around Choi Soo-hyun. The problem was even if I found a source that said he did something some way or another, to someone like me, who had come here after living in an entirely different world, there was nothing that I felt accurately conveyed what he had done.

If I had to summarize it, “Ah, this guy is famous and strong,” was the extent of my review.

Kim Tae-woon had definitely encountered Choi Soo-hyun’s fighting form in some way before. I couldn’t hold back my curiosity; I had to ask him.

“It seems like you’ve seen that guy…I mean, Choi Soo-hyun fight before?”

“I’ve only ever seen him from a distance one time during a dungeon break, but I saw him destroy a twinhead ogre in seconds.”

Twinhead ogres were A-grade monsters, and each one took at least three B-rank Hunters to take down.

At the time, Choi Soo-hyun didn’t even take out his weapons, let alone use his skills.

When Kim Tae-woon saw Choi Soo-hyun afterwards scolding the guild Hunters that arrived late while casually sipping his coffee, he realized that affiliation and the individual strength of a Hunter were two separate things. Even if he didn’t know why Choi Soo-hyun, who could become even stronger if he accepted an affiliation, had decided to stay unaffiliated and work as a civil servant for the Association.

I listened as Kim Tae-woon told me his story, then opened my mouth to speak.

“A monster is a monster, huh.”

I didn’t know exactly how strong A-grade creatures were, but if the twinhead ogre that Kim Tae-woon was talking about was anything close to the twinhead ogres that I knew, then they really were monsters.

Even if I adjusted for them to be slightly weaker based on what I’d seen of how weak the goblins in this world were than how I’d thought of them, my assessment wouldn’t be that different.

‘Those who could kill an ogre with their bare hands weren’t common in Arbelicia either.’

I got the general understanding now. Kim Tae-woon muttered to himself.

“I shouldn’t have said anything.”

“Oh, well it’s fine.”

Kim Tae-woon lightly patted me on the shoulder and turned towards the open area where the tent was.

‘He’ll be fine on his own, right?’

None of them, including Kim Tae-woon, seemed to be ignorant of dungeons or anything, so I felt that nothing bad would occur.

‘I’d better start thinking about what to do after we leave this dungeon.’

In my head I had already left the dungeon, and all I could think about was how to keep a tighter leash on Choi Soo-hyun.

* * *

We’d decided to keep a night watch going, but not for any particular reason.

As I was letting out a yawn, Kim Tae-woon approached me. He’d arrived for his shift at just the right time. The time inside the dungeon passed the same way that it did in reality.

We’d decided that the dark hour just before the morning sun fully rose would be the time for our surprise ambush.

An arrow that Lee Ye-eun shot hit a clumsily made wooden house and exploded. While the goblins were trying to get their bearings, Kim Tae-woon and Choi Min-hyuk made short work of them.

Unlike the precise sword of Kim Tae-woon, Choi Min-hyuk’s blade was burning and flickering brightly.

Instead of wielding a flaming sword, he gave off more of an impression of waving around a lit matchstick.

How could I help it if that’s how I saw it?

I thought that because there weren’t that many houses, that there wouldn’t be many goblins, but contrary to my expectations, a surprisingly large amount of goblins came out of the village. Belatedly realizing that the village was on fire, the goblins that were hiding in the caves also came out to their aid.

Even if that amount wasn’t enough, there were still over 30 of them.

Although each individual little goblin wasn’t that strong, if we didn’t clear all of the goblins that were in the village before the cave goblins arrived, then it was sure to be a pain.

Instead of being arrogant about the apparent difference in power, we had understood the enemy’s situation and waited until dawn before proceeding with our ambush.

‘A flawless and perfect strategy.’

Even if you accounted for someone like me having no information about the dungeon beforehand, this kind of progress made it very likely that someone had been given information in advance about the situation.

For a beginner dungeon like this, it was clear that the amount of accumulated information on it in databases would be considerable.

Because of Choi Min-hyuk’s skill, the small village went up in an ocean of flames in an instant. The door that was in the middle of the village suddenly broke down, and a large goblin stepped out.

Compared to the other skinny and emaciated goblins, and just from glancing at his convincing weapon and the necklace made of animal bones hanging around his neck, it was obvious that this was the boss, the Goblin Chief.

The Goblin Chief, who saw that his fellow goblins had fallen dead at his feet in an instant, was filled with rage and rushed towards Kim Tae-woon. Choi Min-hyuk quickly ran out in front of him and blocked him.

Nam Woon-ik, who was standing near the back like I was, used his magic. Three or four ice spears appeared above him. The ice itself looked like it could penetrate through skin, so it didn’t look bad.

The ice spears that Nam Woon-ik threw at the Goblin Chief stabbed his shoulder and thigh. Taking advantage of the Goblin Chief staggering backwards, Kim Tae-woon stabbed his sword right into his chest.

[The Goblin Chief (Boss) has been killed.]

[Upon taking care of the rest of the goblins, the exit gate will activate.]

[Amount of remaining goblins: +18]

Immediately after the Goblin Chief fell dead, the status window notification rang out. Not knowing what to do after their chief had died, the rest of the goblins scattered.

As if they’d planned it out beforehand, the remaining four who were standing strong diligently took care of the rest of the goblins.

Nam Woon-ik’s ice spear pierced through the last goblin’s chest, and at the same time the number of remaining goblins dropped to 0.

[Amount of remaining goblins: 0]

[‘The Goblin Village’ Dungeon has been cleared.]

[Error :: The exit gate has failed to load.]

…

Something had gone wrong.

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