First quest
After leaving the guild, I first headed to a equipment shop on the main district to get better gear, and then left Realzard.
By the way, my equipment is still the absolute minimum. Nothing fancy, just leather armour and a leather shield. As for my weapon, I went to the storehouse of weapon’s store where all the low quality extra products lay to get a cheap, slightly rusty iron sword.
And all that still cost 9 silver coins.
Even inferior goods still cost a lot. Instead of nabbing that old pocketwatch, I should have just grabbed one of the many swords lying around my house instead. Well, no point in regretting it now.
I followed the northern highway path from Realzard and after reaching the abandoned path, I began searching for these goblins.
Now, I called it a ‘path’ but weeds overran the path and it looked more like a beast trail than a path for humans.
From three options the receptionist gave me, I picked the one that seemed like it would be in the most open area where I could see everything but if goblins are showing up, its hardly going to be a populated area I suppose.
According to the information, monsters other than goblins also show up once in a while so I treated this like I was back in the Peixa forest, with my focus and concentration at maximum as I moved forward.
The leaves rustled from the wind, and the movement of living things.
At first I would jump at every little sound of the forest but now my body had learnt the differences and adapted, almost forcefully so.
Just like the time I found that Orc, I removed any noise that was due to wind and only focused on the noise made by animals as I continued walking further.
——Found one.
In the Peixa forest I’d go days without finding anything alive, but it only took about 10 minutes here.
Diagonally to the right from me, I heard something move.
It had not noticed me yet and continued to walk through the grass completely unguarded.
I failed against the Orc but I wont make that mistake again. This time I’ll land my surprise attack perfectly.
Making sure to not make noise from my footsteps, and avoiding stepping on the weeds I crouched and approached closer to it.
Thanks to the weeds being taller than my current posture, I wasn’t able to see it but I could tell where it was from the sound as I moved closer and closer.
I couldn’t avoid stepping on the weeds anymore, and that will most certainly make a noise so I’m going to rush it from here and attack.
Thankfully, it had yet to notice anything wrong. A chance.
I sharpened my hearing, nailed its position, took a deep breath and then jumped out.
Rushing through the weeds, I confirmed the enemy.
A humanoid monster with horribly hunched back and dirty green skin.
That’s most certainly a goblin. My current target.
It was much duller than the Orc and was one whole tempo slower before it noticed me.
Panicking it tried to take a stance with its wooden stick—–but it was too late.
With a diagonal slash, I cut from its left shoulder to its waist.
Next, going with the flow, I was going to stab straight through its skull as a finisher but…….
My diagonal slash literally tore its body into two pieces.
My finisher was unneeded as it fell to the ground and died in a pool of its blood.
“…….As I thought, this is really odd.”
I muttered watching the torn body of the goblin.
I thought the incident with the Orc may have been an exceptional case but there’s no doubt now, my physical strength has increased abnormally.
Goblins were of course the lowest level among monsters. But even if I had switched from a handmade weapon to a iron sword, splitting the monster in two with almost no resistance is impossible.
While staring at the purple blood dripping from the edge of my sword, I ended up simply standing there and pondering.
………..poisonous plants with unknown potential.
Of course!——In the Peixa forest, I ate all sorts of plants that looked they were poisonous enough to kill.
Yesterday, when I was reading the book it didn’t instantly click in my head but finally I’m connecting the dots together.
Among the various plants and herbs that I recklessly consumed in the forest to survive, there has to be a mysterious herb with some sort of body enhancement effect.
While looking at the tragic state of the goblin, the corners of mouths unknowingly rose into a smile.
Otto’s theory was not mistaken after all. Among the various uneatable poisonous plants, there are many with unknown, yet extremely strong effects.
Of course this still correlation and not completely proven yet, but I know that the plants that I’m looking for definitely exist in Peixa forest. I almost wanted to rush back to forest right now but I must stay patient and get my daily life in order first.
Approaching the goblin’s split dead body, I cut its left ear, stored inside my bag and then headed back to the main path in search of more goblins.