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Goblin Chapter 141: Trouble?
🕑 Added 2025-08-10 17:47:07 +0000 UTCJade Forest, afternoon.
Fine snow began to fall again, the cold wind carrying icy grains that moaned and circled through the branches. The winter huntâs killing chill seeped into everything as the weather turned ever more bitter.
Frost had crusted over the heavy pauldrons on the warrior Blakeâs shoulders. With every step he took, his boots sank deep into the thinly snow-covered mulch of rot and leaves, crunching dully.
The others kept moving as they tried to work warmth back into their stiff bodies.
âDamn this weather⌠We finally had a half-decent, warmer morning, and now itâs freezing againâstill no âpreyâ in sight.â In the middle of the party, the mage Pieroâs cheeks were bluish with cold as he forced himself to maintain the faint shimmer of a detection spell. He was the one who hated the cold the most, and even bundled in a thick winter coat he couldnât match the hardy constitutions of the front-liners.
âItâs fine,â said the rogue Dilan, rubbing his hands and breathing out a plume of white. A sly gleam flashed in his eyes. âWe scout a bit farther. If we still come up emptyââ He paused on purpose until everyoneâs eyes were on him. ââwe can always take a look next door.â
âI noticed on the way in,â he went on. âThe sector beside ours belongs to that two-person teamâthe man and the woman. At their pace⌠heh.â He didnât finish, but the chuckle said enough.
The other three traded knowing smiles.
Poaching kills wasnât exactly honorable, but among Bronze-rankers with comparable strength, numbers were king. If there was anyone to blame, it was the pair whoâd decided to run with only two.
âShh!â
âOn guard!â
Blake, up front, rumbled a warning, greatsword snapping up across his body.
A heartbeat later, three green-eyed worgs exploded from the brush on their flank!
Both sides were caught off guard, and the fight ignited in an instant.
âHrah!â Blake roared. His greatsword howled through the air and hacked down at the worg that had leapt ahead of the others. The beast couldnât correct mid-pounce; it slammed straight onto the cold edge.
Schlkkâsplatter!
A tooth-aching rip tore the air. A vicious red line opened from the wolfâs neck down to its belly; hot blood and viscera sprayed a garish crimson across the snow. The body split in midair and crashed to the ground in two halves.
Even as Blake struck, his companions dispatched the other two worgs in short order.
âBlake, could you maybe keep it down next time?â Piero grimaced, twisting aside from the spray of hot wolf blood.
Blake didnât answer. His gaze stayed hard and bright on the direction the worgs had come from.
These werenât ordinary wild wolves. Worgs were tougher and more enduring, often allied with elite goblins, orcs, or other monsters, serving as mounts or guards. Supposedly they were originally bred by magic as war-beasts; after generations of decline, todayâs worgs no longer carried that brutal peak combat powerâbut the habit of allying with monsters remained in their blood. Their appearance usually meant a sizable monster encampment was nearby.
The others had clearly thought of this too; their eyes lit up.
âFinally, a lead,â the rogue grumbled. âWe only cleaned out one lousy nest this morningâI thought weâd be going back empty-handed.â
âItâs getting late. Letâs find the site and finish it quickly,â the cleric urged.
Since the trail lay in their own âbackyard,â they dropped the idea of slipping into the ânext sector.â Better to avoid headaches; their party liked to keep the peace.
Dilan took point, following the fresh, scrambling wolf tracks through the snow at a brisk clip.
But as they pushed deeper, excitement turned to puzzlement.
They ran into more trickles of stragglersâsome panicked kobolds, a dretch limping on a rotten legâcreatures fleeing as if a flood was at their heels, bolting any which way.
âCareful.â
Doubts piled up. Had someone beaten them here? The nearby teams were all about the same levelâby rights, none of them should be moving this fast. Or had the monster settlement clashed with some native forest predator?
Questions swirling, the four slipped through a dense stand of firsâand the woods opened into a clearing.
Out ahead, a lone man with a slender blade wove through the remnants of a monster pack, cutting a free-flowing path.
Every step.
Every precise thrust ended with a monster slumping to the ground.
His footwork was light and lethalâalmost like a dance through the battlefield.
âDamn it! Someone really did beat us here?â Piero barked, fury flushing his frost-pale face. If the man was here this fast, he had to be breaking the rulesâpoaching before heâd even finished his own assigned sector.
Theyâd just been plotting the same thing, but it felt very different as the targets of it.
âItâs him?â Dilan narrowed his eyes. Through the swirls of snow he made out a face framed by black hair, preternaturally calm. âYou know him?â someone asked.
âYeah. The two-person team next to usâhim and the girl. And I just rememberedâheâs the one people in town have been joking about lately. âGoblin Slayer.â Black hair. Rapier.â
âStrong?â the cleric murmured.
âNo idea,â Dilan said, shaking his head. âAll Iâve heard is he hunts goblins on purpose.â
âHow strong can someone be if all he does is bully weak monsters?â Piero shivered, anger climbing as he thought of the afternoon theyâd spent in the snow, only to have their haul âstolen.â That was real gold, and if no one saw, fineâbut to run into the culprit mid-slaughter?
âShould we⌠teach them a lesson?â Blake said in a low voice.
Out in the clearing, the fight had already ended.
Gauss gave his rapier a quick flick, sending filth spattering from the blade, and pinned the last gray oozeâtrying to melt into the mudâinto the frozen ground. A trace of satisfaction crossed his face.
That made the third half-ogre leader.
Andâ
[Total Monsters Kills: 801.]
âplus the sixteenth common monster index entry unlocked: Gray Ooze.
Everything was proceeding in neat order.
Butâ
His gaze slid to one side.
Four figures were emerging from the trees at the edge of the clearing.
Gauss vaguely recognized them as one of the teams in this winter hunt. They were almost certainly from out of townâfaces he hadnât seen beforeâlikely folks whoâd arrived in Grayrock in the past couple of weeks for the hunt.
He didnât hurry. Calm as ever, he drew a special green signal flare from his belt and lit it.
A straight pillar of thick green smoke speared upward, stark against the gray, snow-flecked skyâannouncing that the clearing operation here was complete.
âHey, âGoblin Slayer,â thatâs a bit out of line, donât you think?â the mage in the middle said, frowning at that showy âclaim-the-spotâ signal.
âIs there a problem?â Gauss tilted his head slightly, still chewing his monster frog jerky at an unhurried pace.
âThis is our sector,â the mage said, bristling. âAnd if you got here this fast, you didnât even finish clearing your own area first, did you?â
Gaussâs eyes slid over the rest of them. They hadnât spoken, but they were clearly of one mind.
Behind him, Alia and Ulfen jogged up from the distance.
âSo what is it you want?â Gauss asked.
He knew full well that telling them heâd only crossed over after finishing his own area would be pointless. From the way they were coming on, they werenât here to verify anything.
âSince you broke guild rules first, split the proceeds from this sweep fiftyâfifty,â the mage said. âWe wonât file a complaint.â
His gaze drifted between Gauss and Alia. Clearing a nest with just two peopleâheâd grant they had some skill. But theyâd just finished a tough fight, while his side was freshâand they had them four to two.
Might made right.
He felt his demand was perfectly reasonable.
âWeâve already cleared our assigned sector. Youâre the ones breaking the rules,â Alia said from behind Gauss. âGrayrockâs winter hunt doesnât allow this kind of strong-arm robbery.â
The four ignored her and kept their attention on Gauss.
He slid another strip of jerky into his mouth, still chewing as he looked them over: a heavy warrior, a mage, a rogue, and a cleric who barely registeredâeach wearing a one-star Bronze badge.
Wind whipped grains of snow and teased the fringe at his brow.
Gauss was silent a moment. The rhythm of his chewing had a strange, steady cadence that put an odd pressure on the four as they waited for his reply.
At last he slowly, clearly shook his head.
âI donât accept.â
âIf you want to complain, go ahead.â
