Chapter 23 – Level 4, The Goblin Isn’t Runnıng Away

I used my knife to kill the two goblins Aura caught.

I turned around before any blood splattered on me and cut the neck of the goblin behind me.

“Wow, Seiji!”

“I’m not doing anything.”

Aura complimented me, but all credit for this fight belongs to her.

I’m just finishing the monsters off, since Aura doesn’t have a concept of EXP. So, things are just convenient for me.

Aura dug the earth. She was used to digging holes, since she can traverse very quickly by going underground.

She burreid the goblins there.

It’s not as if I want to give them a proper burial or anything, I just don’t want to see rotten corpses the next time going through here. Goblin meat is especially unpleasant, and I’d never eat the meat of a humanoid monster.

“Aura, about those goblins!-”

“Seiji, that was close!”

She replied immediately.

I wanted to make sure that the goblin couldn’t get away, but it looks like Aura thought that was dangerous. No, she’s not wrong.

She was worried about my well-being.

If I had missed with my bow back then, the goblin would get even closer to me before I could shoot again. Then, I’d have to fight using my knife.

For me, that’s the last resort. No, the worst resort.

Even if I have a 90% chance of victory, that 10% means a heavy injury or even death.

So, the best choice for safety’s sake back then was for Aura to knock that goblin out.

I don’t feel great about fighting against an unconscious opponent in my first real bow battle, but it would be wrong to hold that against Aura.

“Yeah, thanks. I’m glad you came with me.”

“Ehehe!”

Aura, who looks like an older sister to me at a glance, started happily laughing like a child.

I feel very foolish now seeing her smiling face.

I tried to change the subject.

“Aura, there were four goblins surrounding me, right? Where’s the other one?”

“It ran away. Together with another goblin.”

I see. Unlike slimes, goblins are at least intelligent enough to run away.

Goblins are worth 10 EXP. 10 times what slimes are worth.

Thinking about the fact that the EXP I gained in this fight is equivalent to what I would have gotten from 30 slimes, this is very efficient.

The natto slime technique was even more efficient, but Aura didn’t like that so I’m not going to do it again.

“Do you know where the goblin ran?”

“Mhm, that way.”

“Let’s go, then.”

I headed towards the direction opposite to where Aura pointed at.

I can chase the goblin for more EXP, but finding an exit is more important right now.

We continued walking in the mountain valley.

I found the exit circle next to a spring.

There was a bird similar to a goose, which ran away when it saw me.

Yes, it ran away.

It sounds normal, but it’s really not.

For example, birds like albatrosses don’t run away from humans. That’s because they live on uninhabited islands, so they don’t see humans as foes that can capture them. That’s why they’re so easy to catch and got the name albatross.¹The word for albatross in Japanese means ‘Stupid Bird’.

Yet, this goose ran away.

It was probably attacked by goblins many times and saw us as the same type of creature as them.

It looks like goblins eat bird meat too.

Well, maybe they just saw through Aura’s strength as a monster by instinct.

“Seiji, I got it!”

Aura caught the bird with her ivies.

“Alright, let’s have a barbecue!”

I brought more than just my bow and knife.

I brought barbecue tools.

There were extra barbecue tools other than the ones my family, so I brought them all with me.

My knife was tainted with goblin blood, so I washed it in the spring.

“Seiji, you’re good at using knives.”

“Well, I used to do a lot of cooking back in the day.”

Both my parents worked back when I was in Japan, so they did the cooking in turns. Then, when I started high school, I was the one put in charge of the cooking.

So, I’m pretty good at cooking.

I’ve never prepared a bird for cooking, but I can just do what my father was doing earlier.

Well, it’s easy to say, but it was actually pretty hard to do.

I didn’t get any blood on me even when I was killing the bolins, but I got pretty dirty with the bird’s blood while cooking. What would my family in my former world say if they saw me like this, I wonder?

“I guess this should be good.”

I put the meat on a skewer.

Then, it’s time to cook.

The meat’s white skin got whiter and whiter and fat started emerging.

Fire rose up along with cracking sounds as the fat fell onto the bonfire.

“It looks delicious.”

“I don’t think it’ll be as delicious as it smells.”

I didn’t use any salt, let alone pepper, so I don’t think it’ll turn out that great.

The taste isn’t really that important, though.

“Seiji, they’re here.”

Looks like they’re finally showing themselves.

Aura’s ivies reached out.

She caught two goblins.

Then, eight goblins in total started assaulting us.

They’re not running away.

The goblins didn’t run away this time.

(Yeah, it’s just like Lana told me, after all.)

I fearlessly smiled.

Translator Notes

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  The word for albatross in Japanese means ‘Stupid Bird’.