Chapter 5: Ambush Under the Stars

“How strong do you think we are?”

“We could probably take down a couple of nests.”

Daro calmly analyzed our strength.

I fully agreed.

The goblins’ strength is insignificant.

There are four teams of scouts guarding the goblin nests.

Once we enter the nests, we’ll encounter unarmed goblins, baby goblins, and goblin shamans who take on the leader role.

Apart from the inconvenience of fighting inside the nests, everything is in our favor.

The number of enemies may increase, but their quality will decrease.

At this rate, completing the mission is just a matter of time.

“From here, we’ll need to find the path.”

We decided to gather clues by circling around the foothills near our destination.

“This way.”

Thanks to Jian’s combat unit, Somi moved much more energetically than before.

It might be due to the healing effect,

or perhaps the muscle pain was replaced by even worse pain, but I couldn’t tell for sure.

With the Dungeon Seeker leading, our speed began to pick up.

Somi easily discovered the traces left by the goblin scouts.

“I think this is the scouting route…”

Somi tilted her head.

It was good that we had found a clue,

but she wasn’t sure how to use it.

“This works out perfectly. Let’s set up camp nearby.”

I suggested.

Somi looked at me as if I were crazy.

“Are you out of your mind?”

“We fought hard earlier. We need to rest and recover our stamina.”

“I know that! But setting up camp on the same path the scouts are taking…”

Daro spoke up.

“Let’s go with what Hajun says.”

“Huh?”

Somi looked shocked, as though she had been betrayed.

It seemed like Daro understood the intention behind my suggestion to camp.

“Either way, we don’t know where the goblin nest is.”

“That’s true…”

Somi trailed off.

Jian tilted his head.

“Aren’t we supposed to find it?”

“How would you do that?”

“Uh… by searching hard?”

Some things can be solved by effort, others can’t.

If you’re not smart, your body will suffer.

“We’ll set up camp nearby. Then we wait for the goblin scouts to pass by, and when the time is right, we’ll ambush them.”

“…So?”

“We capture one alive. Then it’s over.”

Dungeon Seekers need to move on their own to feel satisfied.

Somi’s mindset was that of a Dungeon Seeker.

She believed that she had to search for things herself.

But of course, we didn’t need to go looking for their nest directly.

We just needed to capture a scout.

“We’ll kill everyone except one. Then we’ll release them, pretending it was a mistake.”

The goblin who barely survives will frantically run back to its nest,

unaware that hunters, ready to destroy the nest, are closing in behind.

Jian shook his head after hearing my plan.

“That’s cruel.”

“We came here to kill them anyway.”

“That’s true, but still.”

Daro smiled slightly at me.

I don’t feel happy when a man smiles at me.

“Well then, let’s find a good position to settle in.”

We scattered to search for a suitable camping spot.

After a short while, we found a decent open area.

We decided to set up camp there.

“Do you think the scouts will pass through here again?”

Jian asked as he set up a makeshift tent.

“They will.”

“How can you be so sure?”

It was hard to explain.

In Dungeon Overseer terms, I could say it was because the encounter rate is fixed.

Because of the fixed encounter rate, a party that goes looking for the goblin nest will inevitably encounter the scouts.

They gather clues and find their way to the dungeon.

Exploration, discovery, and combat.

That’s what roguelikes are all about.

Once the camp was set up, Daro sat next to me and lit his pipe.

Exhaling deep smoke, he sighed and spoke.

“Hajun, you have a good sense.”

It seemed like he was pleased with my suggestion.

“It’s nothing special.”

“That’s because there are plenty of idiots who can’t even come up with something that simple.”

There was a hint of exhaustion in Daro’s laughter.

How many hopeless parties has he led up until now?

After all, there are only a handful of smart explorers.

In terms of the system, the ‘highly educated’ trait is attached only to necromancers, dungeon seekers, and alchemists.

The other classes may randomly have the ‘learner trait,’ which allows them to read and write.

In other words, those without the learner trait are illiterate.

[Daro’s opinion is adjusted. (+ Highly Educated)]

Daro’s gaze seemed to say, “As expected, educated people are different…”

“But you know…”

Jian approached us.

“What if the scouts discover us first?”

He was worried about being ambushed.

He didn’t know that the Dungeon Seeker has the [Unyielding Guide] trait.

“But we have a Dungeon Seeker.”

I pointed to Somi, who had been reading something and now looked up, eyes wide.

Hmm. From a distance, she looked like a cat wearing glasses.

“As long as we have a Seeker Lantern, we don’t have to worry about an ambush.”

Jian seemed to have resolved all his doubts and nodded.

“I see.”

Muttering to himself, Jian seemed to come to terms with it.

He’s great in a fight, but his actions are a bit clueless.

I asked a question just in case.

“Jian, is this your first time hunting goblins?”

Jian shook his head.

“This is the second time.”

Only the second time? He’s a real beginner.

We rested comfortably until sunset.

Sitting around the campfire, we shared the food we brought.

The first day of goblin hunting was coming to an end.

“Shh.”

We were starting to get tired of waiting when Somi pointed toward the darkness, signaling the party to be quiet.

“They’re here. The goblin scouts.”

Our plan to camp where the scouts would likely pass had worked out perfectly.

The goblin scouts emerged from the underbrush.

Once we capture them, we’ll be able to extract the location of the goblin nest.

“Let’s get ready.”

Daro pulled out his Arming Sword.

Daro’s Arming Sword, which he had coated with ash beforehand, didn’t gleam even under the light of the moon.

“They’re close. But their direction seems a bit off.”

“Which way?”

“To the west… Over there. We’ll meet them if we take that path.”

Somi, reading the light from the Seeker Lantern, gauged the enemies’ position.

Like Sting from *The Lord of the Rings*, the Seeker Lantern glows blue when enemies approach.

Dungeon Seekers can determine the strength and direction of the light to locate the enemies.

This is why Dungeon Seekers are so overpowered.

“Right there!”

We lay in ambush in the bushes that Somi pointed to.

After a while, the goblin scouts emerged from the darkness.

“Ha!”

In battle, the first strike is always key.

Jian, who had been waiting, charged straight at the goblins.

“Kieek!”

The Mystic’s breakthrough power was top-tier, even in Dungeon Overseer.

The goblins’ formation collapsed like a sandcastle.

“Hajun!”

“I’ve got it!”

While Jian engaged with the goblins, Daro used his Arming Sword to stab and kill one goblin.

Panicked goblins dashed in every direction, and Somi, flustered, ran behind me.

“Kyaaak! Kyaaak!”

It was unbearably loud.

The whip was helpful, but Somi wasn’t much help herself.

As a goblin lunged at her, she shrieked.

I swung my sawblade at the goblin that was about to strike Somi.

“Kireek!”

With a heavy, muffled sound, the sawblade tore through the goblin’s wrist.

It wasn’t just cut off; it was ripped off.

Like an animal’s teeth tearing through flesh, blood gushed out from the gruesomely severed wrist.

“Shut up and stay still!”

“Kyaak! Goblin! There! There it comes!”

I dodged a goblin’s attack and thrust the sawblade forward.

With a sharp sensation, the sawblade pierced the goblin’s stomach.

The goblin spasmed, shaking its arms and legs.

I placed my foot on its shoulder and pulled, and with a burst of hot air, its dirty intestines spilled out.

The smell of goblin blood was unpleasant.

“Kiaaa!”

It seemed like the goblins had a sense of duty to protect their nest, as their morale was much stronger than the goblins we had faced earlier.

As a result, fewer of them fled compared to before.

“Kuh-ack!”

Even though they were just goblins, their courage wasn’t entirely without merit.

Jian’s fist slammed into a goblin’s skull like a hammer, and with a cracking sound, the brain splattered on the ground.

With a single punch, Jian crushed the goblin’s skull and shook its brain like a blender.

Truly a Mystic—his attack power was exceptional.

From a distance, I noticed Jian’s movements seemed off.

He was limping slightly on his left leg.

It looked like he had been grazed by a sharp stone knife across his thigh.

“Somi!”

I gestured toward Jian.

Somi saw Jian’s injury and rushed over, Seeker Lantern in hand.

As the Seeker Lantern’s light turned red, Jian’s wound began to heal as though it had never been there.

“Thank you!”

Jian said with great enthusiasm, but Somi appeared a bit overwhelmed.

She had rushed over to heal, but Jian’s back was a mess of chaos.

“Ha!”

Somi couldn’t keep up with the Mystic’s breakthrough power.

Blood and brain matter splattered everywhere, and goblin teeth flew like stones.

Jian tore through the goblins like a madman, using his psychic gloves to slaughter them.

Somi, looking pale and distressed, retreated behind me.

“Seriously…”

What else could she do?

The place was littered with goblin corpses, now nothing but rags.

Poor Somi.

“Kiiick! Kieeek!”

The battle was decisively in favor of the explorers.

The goblins began to scream and flee for their lives.

Forget the nest, they realized they couldn’t win against the goblin hunters that were the explorers, so they wisely chose to give up.

Though the goblins fled into the darkness, they couldn’t escape the light of the Seeker Lantern.

Even in the dark, their footprints shone brightly as if covered in fluorescent paint.

“Let’s chase them!”

Although it took longer than during the day, this fight, too, ended as a one-sided massacre.

As planned, we captured one goblin alive.

We would release him at dawn to find the goblin nest.

While gathering and examining the bodies, I noticed something strange.

“Hmm?”

What’s this?

It looked like a necklace made of bones, but I couldn’t quite make out what symbol it represented.

It resembled the letter “W,” but could it be related to goblin religion?

“What’s this?”

At times like this, it was better to ask a Dungeon Seeker rather than me, someone who only looked educated on the surface.

I showed the necklace to Somi, who was still calming her upset stomach.

Her expression immediately brightened.

“Where did you find this?”

“It was hanging around its neck,” I said.

Somi stared at the necklace intently, as if she could shoot beams from her eyes any moment.

[The Dungeon Seeker recalls its memory upon seeing the exotic item.]

Emotion…

“This is a shaman’s mark,” Somi said, her voice certain.

The rest of the party gathered around her.

“See here? The hands are clasped together.”

When we looked closer, it did seem like two hands were holding each other, not a “W” as I had first thought.

“What’s the meaning of this?”

“Goblin symbols are simple. They’re not much different from humans.

A sword symbolizes power, the sun stands for majesty, and bones represent authority.

It’s that kind of logic. A clasped hand symbolizes unity.”

“Unity?”

The necklace left behind by the goblin scout…

If it were a sacred symbol, I could understand, but unity? What’s that supposed to mean?

“Could it be some sort of alliance?”

There weren’t such events in Dungeon Overseer.

“Maybe. Shamans make these kinds of marks. It seems like there was some sort of pact between two goblin tribes.

That’s why the scout was carrying it as a token.”

“Not something we need to worry about,” Darro concluded crisply.

I agreed.

In Dungeon Overseer, goblins were just aggressive, simple monsters who loved violence.

They followed a single leader and lived in small caves.

They were the kind of enemy you’d meet early on and fight, fitting perfectly as early-stage roguelike enemies.

One boss, a suitably sized dungeon. Very fitting for the roguelike world.

Goblins were still goblins. Who cared if they made an alliance? What were they going to do with it?

“Shouldn’t we be cautious, though?”

Jian asked, his concern evident, but Darro wasn’t worried at all.

“We’re the ones choosing to fight. The goblins are just blocking our way,” Darro said confidently.

“That’s true, but…”

A hundred times true.

Whether it was fifty or a hundred goblins, in the end, we’d be the ones advancing.

We wouldn’t lose in a fight against the goblin scouts.

And if things got too difficult, we could always abandon the mission and leave.

The money’s tight, but it’s better than dying.

Would I really risk my life fighting for a goblin nest?

“Well then, I’ll take this.”

Somi cheekily claimed the necklace I had found as her own.

“Sure,” I said, knowing she’d do that.

Darro didn’t seem to care, either.

It was something I had expected, so I wasn’t upset.

I’d seen enough Dungeon Seeker events to know this was going to happen.

It would probably be worth just a bit of lunch money if sold in town.

A little disappointing, but I didn’t want to fuss over it. If I didn’t need it, I’d just let it go.

Somi was already grinning with her prize.

[Somi’s mood has been adjusted. (+ Truth Seeker)]

“Let’s rest for today. We’ll move at dawn tomorrow.”

We wrapped up what we needed to do and went to sleep.

The next morning, before the sun rose, we finished breakfast and released the goblin we had captured.

“Somi, could you track them?”

“Don’t worry!”

The goblin nest wasn’t far.