Goblin Village

It was Allen's first day off in October.

After hearing the Knight Captain's report the other day, Allen was now in the foothills of the White Dragon Mountains. Specifically, near the upper edge of the foothills.

A few days' walk from there, the angle of the mountain slope suddenly turned steep and the scenery became barren and desolate. Goblin and orc villages filled the forest here, and just a bit further up, armored ants bored directly into the mountain, forever expanding their massive nests.

Today, Allen was going to take on his first goblin village. The chivalric order had planned on assaulting this particular one several days later, so he was here to get ahead of them and grab all the XP before they could. For the immediate future, he would be focusing solely on goblin villages.

Goblin villages were led by goblin kings. They were Rank C monsters, so he did not expect to have any trouble dealing with them. On the other hand, orc villages were led by orc kings, which were Rank B. The memory of the chase-of-death with the murdergalsh was still fresh in Allen's mind, so he knew it was still too early for him to take on orc villages. They could wait until after he had wiped out all the goblin villages and gained all the XP they had to offer.

The armored ant nests would be quite the challenge too. Allen had been told that each nest was home to at least a thousand armored ants, as well as a queen armored ant which was, again, Rank B. Only after every last ant in a nest was killed could it be repurposed for other means. This translated to fighting a thousand ants on their home turf, a feat naturally considered even more dangerous than attacking an orc village.

However, there was good reason to go after these nests: there was a possibility that the armored ants had exposed mithril veins while creating their passages. In other words, if the ants were gone, what used to be a terrifying monster nest would become a mine with pre-dug shafts possibly leading to already-exposed mithril ore. In fact, two of the four existent mithril mines used to be armored ant nests.

Allen had found the goblin village that he was currently standing in front of using Bird Es. Even now, several of them were circling about in the sky, providing him a detailed bird's-eye view.

'All right, it's time to wipe out every last one of them.'

The goblin village was surrounded by a crude fence with a single gate.

Manning the gate were two guards.

'GO, TEDDYS!'

Four Beast Ds burst out from cover and charged at the gate. Of course, they had already been Strengthened and buffed with Splash.

The two guards were already dead by the time they noticed their assailants. Rank D monsters were hardly a threat to Allen's Summons anymore.

One of the goblins that noticed the attack clambered up a watchtower and started ringing the bell, raising a cacophonous ruckus that served as the background track to four giant bears bursting into the village.

Goblins flooded out of houses made from wooden frames and ragged drapes, but the Teddys made short work of them by using Crush over and over. Some of the goblins smartly took up bows, climbing the walls and watchtowers to make long-range attacks now that it was clear they were disadvantaged in close-quarters combat. However, multiple Insect Ds were already laying in wait, and Spider Silk proved extremely effective against mere goblins.

'I want to be able to launch long-range attacks too. None of my current Summons are specced for it, though. Ranged attacks and Area of Effects attacks—that's what I want.'

Allen was thankful for getting a Summon type that could cast buffs, but there was truly no beating ranged and AoE attacks when it came to hunting efficiency.

He cast a jealous glance at the bows in the hands of the goblins that had been thoroughly trussed up in white strands, then followed his Summons into the village. He stopped right inside the gateway to watch the pitched battle from a safe distance.

'There are, what, about two to three hundred goblins in here, I'd estimate.

'With these numbers, I guess there's bound to be stragglers.'

This was Allen's very first attempt at assaulting a goblin village. He was trying to do this with the Summons Squad alone, but it was clear now that they were not enough. His aim was to annihilate every last resident of this settlement, but at this rate, almost half of the goblins were going to get away.

A lot more Summons were going to be needed to attack a village, so he was going to have to control them in person.

'All right, let's do this quick. Teddys, come out.' Six more Beast Ds appeared, joining the four already in the thick of battle.

As the goblins fell by the dozens, a few started retreating toward the back of the village. At that moment, however, ten more Beast Ds burst into the village from the rear.

Allen had positioned them there ahead of time and told them to come in as soon as the village bell started ringing. The goblins now found themselves in a pincer attack. This was the greatest emergency that had ever befallen the village. A desperate note could be clearly heard in the incessant ringing of the bell.

After a certain number of goblins had died, one with a significantly larger build appeared. Normal goblins were about a meter and a half tall, but this one was over two meters tall and was extremely jacked. It also held a giant battle-ax in one hand.

'Oh, there's the goblin king.'

The monster pushed through its kin, approaching Allen.

"ROOOAAAR!"

However, a Sucker immediately attached itself to the goblin king and activated its Ability. A Beast D also turned around, launching ferocious swipes with its vicious claws.

Before long, the goblin king was on the ground.

'As I'd thought. We're making short work of them.' The sight of the Beast Ds' furious assault assured Allen of his victory.

The goblin king was only as strong as a Rank C monster, and Allen had already killed thousands of them by now, which meant it was no threat at all.

The goblin king finally let go of its weapon and breathed its last.

After killing off the goblin king, Allen's forces proceeded to wipe out the remaining goblins, herding them into one area and gradually tightening the encirclement. Before long, a Beast D tore off the very last monster's head with its jaws.

'Good, all done. Are there any left inside the buildings? You and you, come with me.' Everyone else, gather all the corpses in the middle of the village.

Allen gave out orders, then walked into one of the goblin houses. He wrinkled his nose at the stench while rifling through the structure.

'I'd half expected to find goblin children quivering in fear, but all of them seem to have already come charging out like rabid dogs just now.'

Allen had been unsure what he would have done had he found frightened immature goblins in the houses. When the battle actually broke out, however, the young and elderly goblins had rushed out too, every bit as feral as the adults. Before he had time to think about it, his Summons had killed all of them in the same way. Apparently all goblins that laid eyes on a human would instinctively fly into a murderous rage.

When Allen walked into the next house, his thoughts were interrupted by a truly repulsive discovery: the bodies of several dead humans. He had no idea where they had been abducted from, but almost all of them had been reduced to bleached skeletons. Not a single survivor remained.

'As I'd thought, I really must exterminate them.'

Goblins were a precious source of XP. It would not have been strange at all for Allen's gamer self to think it a waste to wipe them all out. However, if he acted on that thought and left these villages alone, the human casualties would only rise.

Allen renewed his resolve to destroy every last village while instructing his Summons to gather the human remains in the center of the village too. Then he got to work harvesting the magic stones from all the goblins. The task took him almost two full hours.

He needed the Rank D magic stones to create precious Crops of Magic. Naturally, he did not forget to extract the goblin king's Rank C magic stone as well.

'Teddys, gather the materials from the houses.'

Obediently, the Beast Ds shuffled over with heavy steps, dragging along wood, rags, and everything else. Allen instructed them to throw everything on top of the pile of goblin carcasses. When they finished, he took out a lit torch from Storage—they remained lit even inside—and used it to set the construction materials on fire. After all, he did not want the knights who would be arriving later on to catch any infectious diseases from the corpses.

Soon, the fire grew in size, turning the whole pile into a giant bonfire.

'Now, what should I do with the human remains? I could cremate and bury them, but maybe the chivalric order has a different way of doing things. I guess I'll just line them up nicely for the knights to take care of.' Allen decided to let things be so as to not cause undue trouble.

'Well, then. I now know that I can handle goblin villages just fine, so let's get serious about it. I still have orc villages to tackle afterward.'

Thus began Allen's campaign to exterminate all the goblin villages at the foothills of the White Dragon Mountains.