Chapter 8: White-Eyed Goblin

The arrow flew swiftly through the air, then hit the White-Eyed Goblin’s forehead.

Fu-wook!

Kieeck! Ki-geek, Ki-i… … !

Without giving it no time to rest, An-Yura quickly shot another arrow. If it had been a Turtle Bug, it would have struggled in pain and allowed the second arrow to penetrate it, but it was different…

It avoided it!

The white-eyed goblin was in pain but avoided An Yu-Ra’s arrow. In addition, it directly ran towards the direction where the arrow came from.

The tree An Yu-Ra was sitting on shook violently. The little guy was ramming his torso into a tree stump.

“Huh, what!”

“Wait! I’ll lure it in.”

An Yu-Soo tried to pull his bowstring, but

It was useless. It seemed to have made An Yu-Ra as its main target. Even when he was shooting at it with a couple of arrows the Goblin still ignored him.

Meanwhile, the tree An Yu-Ra was sitting on slowly leaned forward. Falling down on her side could have resulted into a minimal injury though she might get severely injured once the White-Eyed Goblin lashed on her.

Can An Yu-soo solve it?

I glanced up at him and saw that he was panicking and didn’t know what to do.

Is this the best he can come up with?

He needed a more sophisticated approach. Climbing up the tree to hide was a pretty good plan, but they shouldn’t have separated.

First, they should have changed location right after they fired their arrows… Because once they shoot an arrow, they would risk revealing their current location.

Second, since the Goblin had focused its attention to An Yu-Ra, from that moment on, they need to cooperate tacitly. An Yu-Ra had to take the role of a tank, trying to buy as much time as possible. Then An Yu-Soo, takes on the role of the main damage dealer. That should have been the best way to deal with the situation.

If only they attacked its eyes first. The outcome would have been different. The Goblin didn’t even notice him…

Eyes are the most common weakness of all monsters. In fact it’s also, the White-Eyed Goblin’s weakness.

“Aaaagh!”

I was quickly pulled back from my thoughts when I heard An Yu-Ra’s screaming.

«Spatial interference»

In that brief moment of activation, all the information about the surroundings instantly flooded into my mind. I quickly picked out the information I needed. For example…

Something like the coordinates above the head of the white-eyed goblin.

Shuuk!

I suddenly heard a sound of wind whizzing near my ears. The Goblin instantly screeched in surprised, after seeing me appearing out of thin air.

Kiek!

It suddenly bared its fangs and pounced on my leg, trying to bite on it. However, I was faster.

Swishhh–

Kegheh! Kegeg, Kegeg!

Karambit showed off its majestic curves while gouging out one of the Goblin’s eyes. The unbearable pain forced it to take a couple of steps back. Unfortunately, the force made my hand shake a little bit.

“An Yu-Soo!”

The instant I called out for him, arrows flew straight towards it.

-Sweishhhh

Keek!

An arrow was then lodged on its other eye. The Goblin howled and struggled wildly, after losing its sight.

“Save Yu-Ra first!”

“Okay!”

An Yu-soo quickly rushed to An Yu-ra’s side to assist her. I had to finish this monster off immediately. It lost its sight and was still panicking. Then it suddenly stopped. I saw it sniff a couple of times, then suddenly jolted at my direction. He actually followed the smell of the blood from the Karambit.

Whoop!

This guy can run fast. However, I still got the upper hand. I quickly activated my skill once again, then shifted on top of its head. I saw the guy spin lightly, then stumbled and hit the ground.

Kwadeuk!

Karambit specializes in cutting so I added an extra force while slashing through one of its arms. Even though it was so angry, it can’t do anything to me. The body of the Goblin suddenly hit the ground with a plop!

“Finally…”

When I turned around, the twins were staring blankly at me.

“Whenever you meet an Intelligent monster, don’t use a simple combat system like earlier. It was full of loopholes. If you encountered this in a regular reconnaissance mission, without me you’d have died already. Now think about other ways, you could have used as a countermeasure.”

“Uh……”

“Okay.”

They both looked a bit in a dazed. They were often praised as geniuses, and have always been successful in dealing with normal monsters. So when they tragically failed today, they felt a major blow. They didn’t know there was such a huge gap between them.

But why did the white-eyed goblin appear here?

When I was in the indoor gym previously, there were not many monsters wandering around the area. It was mostly turtle bugs and some low-level monsters. If a white-eyed goblin appeared, I would have known about it.

… I’ll have to report it for now and tell them to reinforce the reconnaissance teams. Make sure they’re on high alert.

The twins kept quiet while we were on our way back. It seemed like they were thinking hard about what happened.

***

Dung, doo!

A heavy sound echoed from the entrance. This was a signal that the scouting party has returned.

Everyone’s attention were focused at the entrance. They were trying to make sure that the team had returned safely, and that there were no casualties. I was a bit apprehensive.

When the door opened, a disgusting odor unique to monsters wafted at our direction. Today’s scouting mission was assigned to group B. It was a team led by Seol Min Jun.

Seol Min-joon, who was leading the team, looked fine except for a few scratches on his forearm. Then, a group of people carrying the monsters they’ve hunted appeared… I counted each one of them. One, Two, Three, Four, Five…

And Six, Seven.

There were people at the back carrying a wounded person, he looked like he was on the verge of dying. He will probably die.

After putting the patient in another tent, Seol Min-Jun went to Choi Woo-Do to report. He signaled me to follow along the way. It looks like I need to hear about it.

“I’m coming.”

“Heh, heh heh… heh…”

The twins were breathing heavily.

“Quickly… breathe, go away…”

We were still doing the basic training today. Both of them was almost crawling to the ground. When Seol Min-Jeon passed by, I left them gawking behind. We then went to Choi Woo-Do’s tent.

* * *

“Uh, Seol Min-joon… you worked hard. How did things go today?”

“One person was seriously injured.”

As I followed and entered, Choi Woo-do greeted us with his piercing eyes.

“What’s the status?”

“He won’t get past today.”

“That…”

He frowned slightly. There were so many work to do, but too few people. Not to mention, the human body is quite fragile, so people kept on getting hurt and dying. Collecting monster body parts had also become a headache. They need to be handled meticulously or else it might cause unnecessary trouble.

“What else?”

“It’s clear that the turtle bugs are trying to move their territory.”

“What?”

Choi Woo-do lowered his glasses slightly and stared at Seol Min-jun. He stared intently as if asking for an explanation. Seol Min-Jun then stood in front of the map.

“We passed by a couple of Turtle bugs at the beginning. There were so many of them here to there…”

He then pointed at a certain location on the map.

“… But I haven’t seen a single one of them on the way to here.”

He pointed again at a spot.

The situation looked serious. Turtle Bugs don’t have such a huge habitat. They weren’t strong monsters in the first place. They mostly hunt in groups. However, if we can’t see it that far in the area, it means something is wrong.

That white-eyed goblin…Is it related to its appearance on its territory?

That was the only thing that had changed recently.

“Is that how it is…”

“They kept being hunted, so they must be running away.”

“Then what kind of monster did you encounter that hurt you so badly?”

Seol Min-joon suddenly made a grim expression.

“When I was using my reconnaissance skill, I was able to see its rank. Turtle Bugs were just unranked low level monsters but this one…”

Seol Min-Jeon’s proficiency with his unique skill had went up. So he can finally see through the ranks of monster even at a distance.

“……It was D-class.”

Rattle!

Choi Woo-do jumped up from his seat. He grabbed Seol Min-Jeon firmly with a strength not comparable to an old man his age, then asked with a baffled voice.

“Are you sure…?”

“Yes… We managed to escape from it, but there were many so injuries.”

We knew the Turtle Bug’s behavior was suspicious. They won’t run away for no reason. However, since a D-class monster appeared, they had no choice but to switch habitat. That white-eyed goblin might have been chased by it.

But we, whose dwelling place is here, cannot escape. Since the turtles have ran away, there will be problems with our food supply…

I don’t think there was a similar problem like this before my regression. I had never heard of the appearance of a D-class monster. If it had happened before I returned, it would have all been swept away during this time.

Were things different because I started changing things?

The number of people in the Gym is twice than before. Due to this, we needed more supplies. So we even went as far as hunting Turtle Bugs using boats. Was it because of that? I don’t know anymore…

“That monster, what does it look like?”

I might be able to recognize it after hearing his description. Then, we can come up with a plan to handle it.

“It wasn’t big. I couldn’t get a good look at it because it was so fast, but it looked like a dog, and it was black and… it had three heads.”

Cerberus!

I know it’s a famous legendary creature from the legends. But unfortunately, it is a reality standing inside this gate.

Cerberus got its name from its three-headed features, but just because it looks like a dog doesn’t mean it has no intelligence. Rather, they are highly intelligent. Enough to make simple conversations with people.

“It’s a Cerberus. This is quite tricky… Unlike simple ignorant monsters, a Cerberus has three heads and can discuss amongst themselves. He’s smart enough enough to hunt preys and even set traps.”

This is a very fatal opponent for the An Twins. Those guys are vulnerable to opponents who can think. They were getting better at sparring but… There were still so many shortcomings.

“It’s good that it’s still far away from our location, but we’ll have to come up with a countermeasure soon.”

Choi Woo-do nodded. He had to form a punitive force.

***

“Huh? Seo-Haya1?”

When I turned around, I saw Song Da-jeong was standing behind me. She was dressed as if she had rolled around in a dirt pit.

“Why do you look like that?”

“Uh, I was chopping firewood.”

Her smile was so bright it looked unsuitable with the current situation. She’s a combat personnel. It’s an ambiguous position, but chopping firewood was also effective in increasing muscle strength. So if you keep doing it, there will be changes.

“What did you talk about with Teacher Woo-do?”

“I didn’t talk much. I just went to listen to the scouting team report today.”

Song Da-jeong slightly made a hardened expression. It’s probably because she heard that they had a casualty. The injured person, who returned in a critical condition, eventually died. Song Da-jung must have been chopping firewood to cremate the body.

“Did Min-Jeon come back with the scouting team today? Is he having a hard time too?”

“Yeah I think think so…”

Seol Min-Jeon didn’t look sad at the loss of his teammates. He rarely expressed his emotions. Although he does show dissatisfaction or irritability at times, but we never saw him sad or happy.

“It’s not obvious, but he must be having a hard time too. You must comfort him well.”

“I don’t think I…”

“Why won’t Da-Jeong unnie 2 do it instead of me?”

When I asked her using a mischievous tone, Song Da-jung’s face instantly turned red. I laughed.

She’s so obvious.

“My, my, why me? I’m not very close…”

“Still, Seol Min-Jeon thinks of us his fellow supermarket survivors a little fondly, right?”

He doesn’t show it often, but sometimes he  occasionally treats us with a caring attitude. He does often make a perplexed expression when he looked at Song Da-Jung which she didn’t notice at all. Well if she doesn’t know, then don’t.

“ Well, ugh… Seo-haya~ I forgot I… needed to finish something… heheh… I need to go… sorry… so..”

“Yes, unnie has a lot of work to do, don’t worry I got your back.”

“Then see you later!”

Song Da-jeong ran so quickly like she was being chased by a monster. She looked at me from afar then smiled snd waved her hand.

Silly.

Yes. It’s not just that I’ve gotten older over the past months. My communication skills, which used to be terrible have improved to a tolerant level. Well I mean people change as you get to know them.

As your relationship grows, their perception of you also changes. For example from an ‘Overbearing kid’ to a ‘Nice Kid’.

“Even sweet-natured noona doesn’t notice~.”

I heard a hurried footsteps approaching me.

“Lee Chan-song.”

“Da-Jeong noona is not an older sister, why are you calling her that. Isn’t Seo-Ha too much?”

Lee Chan-Song pretended to reprimand me. She went out with Seol Min-Jeon during the scouting mission today. She looked a bit worn out. Seeing that she hasn’t changed her clothes but immediately came to see me. I guess she wants to talk about something.

***

TL NOTE:

Hello Spriggy here~

It’s a full Chapter today! Hahaha It’s a lot of work but I’m trying to see if I can manage it. *-* Anyways, more interesting monsters are appearing, and Omo~ Seol Min-Jeon having a fan girl hahaha. I wonder if they can resolve this crisis?