Chapter 10: Die 3
They charged at the swordsman, wanting to end this as soon as possible.
Ner got into his fighting stance and concentrated on tracing our location by focusing on our eyes.
Noah sprinted toward the left flank of the swordsman while Leo sprinted toward the right, attempting to make it harder for him to focus on both of them at the same time.
Arriving next to him, Noah swung his sword horizontally, aiming at his waist.
Clang!
Even though he was unable to see anything, his battle instincts as a swordsman allowed him to parry the swing before counter-attacking.
"I won't go down so easily, bastards!" He roared and slashed at Noah to cut him in half.
However, Leo arrived behind Ner at that moment and smashed the flattened surface of the hammer into his ribs.
Bang!
Crack
"Argh!" He cried out in pain, holding his ribs, which had cracked slightly from the impact. The power behind the attack made him stumble back, and blood slipped from the corner of his mouth.
'He didn't make any sound. Is it a skill?' Ner guessed that the goblin must have used a skill to arrive behind him so silently that he wasn't able to notice him.
'What a strange goblin'
Now that he thinks about it, this goblin is very different compared to any other goblin he has confronted so far. He is way more intelligent and even defends his ally, which these foolish creatures would never do. They are a greedy bunch who care only about themselves and wouldn't care about others' deaths whatsoever.
'Shit! Why am I thinking about this now!?' Ner cursed himself for losing focus and thinking about these useless thoughts when his life was in danger right now.
The pair of red eyes that were on his left had somehow appeared in front of him, staring deep into his soul.
He attempted to evade the incoming attack, but the intense pain from his damaged ribs caused him to momentarily halt for a second, enough for Noah to end his life.
Noah used his skill [Vital Stike] and was nearly about to stab his sword into Ner's heart when an arrow was fired, aiming directly at him.
This forced Noah to use his sword to deflect the incoming arrow and retreat instead.
"Phew!" Ner breathed a sigh of relief that he was still alive.
"Be quicker next time! I almost went to see Gerit and Kerr in heaven!" He yelled in anger, as he would have met his demise if the arrow had been a second late.
"I am trying, but it is not easy to pinpoint them when I can't see anything!" John was frustrated. He has never practiced shooting in this kind of darkness before, so this is very difficult for him.
He is also afraid that he will hit Ner by mistake, as he is clashing with those two. If that happens, he will be doomed.
'If only the fucking fire did not die out. Damn it!.' He gritted his teeth out of resentment and clutched the handle of his bow tightly.
'No, I have to calm down,' He said to himself as he took a deep breath and grabbed an arrow out of the quiver behind his back.
'Now is not the time to panic or be frustrated; it will only cause my dea—'
Bang!!
All of a sudden, a heavy and hard object hit John's head from behind with a huge amount of force, knocking him unconscious.
Thud-
"What happened!" Ner called out to John when he heard a long bang. Yet there was no reply from him.
"Hey, answer me!"
Seeing that John still didn't reply, he starts to have a bad premonition. He turned his head around, hoping to see the familiar yellow eyes, but instead, he saw a pair of shining red eyes staring down at something on the ground.
"You gotta be kidding me." His expression turned grave, and fear could be seen on his face as he realized that there were three enemies and he had to face them all alone.
His instinct is telling him to run, but he knows that it is impossible. The cave is pitch black, and he has lost his sense of direction; even if he wants to run away, he doesn't know where the exit is.
At that instant, he knew, "I am going to die."
…
Thud—
The head rolled through the ground as the body of the swordsman dropped to the ground like a puppet with its strings cut.
Ding!
[Level 9: Human (Ner) Killed]
[Leo +700 exp]
[Exp: 1500/10000]
[Noah +450 exp]
[Exp: 480/500]
[Level 8: Human (John) Killed]
[Kene +700 exp]
[Exp 40/600]
[Level up 3 -> 5]
(Note: different types of races and monsters will give different amounts of exp. For example, a level 1 horned rabbit will give you 10–30 exp, whereas a level 1 human will give you 100–200 exp.)
After struggling for 10 whole minutes, the swordsman had finally exhausted most of his strength and fell to his knees from the injuries he had suffered from our continuous clash. Noah delivered the final slash, decapitating the man.
The archer, who was knocked unconscious by Kene with an [ice hurl], was swiftly killed by Kene, who plunged a dagger into his forehead.
They didn't stand a chance against us since they lost their light source. However, I admire this guy's resolved desire to struggle until the end, even after knowing that he has no chance of surviving.
"Garw Garw Garw" (Gather up the loot, and it's time to go back home.) I said, wanting to go home quickly and have fun with my beautiful Mia.
We took all the loot that we deemed valuable and left the cave on our way back home.
An hour later…
"Home, sweet home!" Kene shouted as we arrived home. She then runs toward the small cave where her mother is, seemingly eager to tell her what has happened today.
"Mommy! We are home!" She said that and jumped into Mia's embrace.
"Welcome back" Mia welcomed her back with a warm smile and patted her head.
"We had so much fun today!" Kene said.
"That's nice. What did you guys do to make you so happy?" Mia asked, curious about what was making her daughter smile so brightly.
"Remember the adventurers I told you about yesterday?"
"Oh, the ones your papa stalked?" Mia recalled the thing that Kene had told her yesterday after they came back.
"Mhm," Kene nodded her head.
From what Kene told her, they stumbled upon a group of adventurers on their way home, and they decided to follow them. It appears that they are on a mission to find a missing girl, which was probably her.
Mia was slightly surprised to know that people were nearby and that they were trying to find her, but that was it. It did not matter to her anymore; she had decided to remain here.
"So what about them?" Mia asked.
"We killed them," Kene said happily.
"Eh?" However, Mia, who did not expect what Kene just said, froze.
"I helped a lot and even killed one myself. Daddy even complimented me for being so helpful. I am amazing, right, Mommy?" She looked up at her with a big smile, her eyes sparkling as if asking for her to praise her too.
"Y-y-yeah, g-good, j-j-ob." Mia stuttered, stunned by what she had just heard.
"Hm? Mommy, what's wrong? You look pale. Are you okay?" Kene was worried as she looked at her mother's pale face.
"Oh, I am f-fine," Mia replied.
But she was not fine at all! She just heard her daughter talk about how they had just killed some humans. She even killed one herself!
'This is wrong, but...' She clenched her fist; she knew she couldn't do anything, even if she hated it and thought it was wicked.
'What has this perverted goblin done to make my innocent kene become like this? Has Noah become like this too?' she sighed
She feels gloomy and depressed that she wasn't able to prevent her child from being corrupted by that sinful goblin.
"Oh yeah! Mommy, look what I got," Kene said, showing the burnished staff to her.
Putting her negative thoughts aside, she gave her attention back to Kene.
'It's better than the one I used' She thought while inspecting the magic staff that was shown to her.
"Brother gives it to me after we kill the mage," Kene said.
"I see..." she murmured, still troubled by the fact that the adventurers were killed.
"Wait, what happened to the other staff?" She asked, noticing that her staff was nowhere to be seen.
"Oh, I threw that one away," Kene said calmly like nothing was wrong.
"Ehhhh?! Why did you do that?" Mia cried.
"Um…well this one is much better, so I won't need it anymore," Kene said. She was kind of startled by her mother's reaction. Isn't it obvious that you throw away the things that you don't need anymore?
"Ahh…" Mai dropped to the ground and sobbed.
She had painstakingly worked for weeks to get enough money to purchase that magic staff, but now it is gone.
'My staff… sniff'
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone