#18 Reconnaissance
Stones are the easiest weapons to find around here, but chucking them accurately takes some serious skill.
Thud, thud, thud!
Jin-tae took a good, hard piece of wood and started shaping it with a stone axe.
Once he figured it was sharp enough, he stuck the tip in the bonfire Oh-ho had going.
Finally, he used a bone knife – made from crocodile teeth – to get the hardened spear tip even sharper.
Turns out, having more people really helps to split up the work.
“It’s done. Take one each.”
“Amazing, Deputy!”
“Psh, it was nothing.”
Jin-tae puffed up his chest, trying not to grin. Gotta keep up appearances in front of the guys, right? Especially as their Second.
“Oh, not bad?”
Cheol-du held a spear.
In a dense mountain like this, a long spear is rather inconvenient.
It was a very short spear, just over 1 meter in length, but it felt quite reassuring.
This was especially true for Oh-dol and Jong-du.
Having a weapon in hand was somewhat of a relief.
“Okay, let’s go slowly.”
“We encountered a pack of wolves over there last time.”
“Huh? I saw them over here.”
The Oh-ho-dol-yi crew were basically just dead weight on hunts with the older gangsters, so they were useless as guides.
“Let’s just go this way.”
Cheol-du simply followed the mountain ridge upwards.
There was no rush for this hunt.
They already had enough goblin coins, so there was no need to rush and compete to chase monsters, and no need to hunt recklessly just because they were greedy for stat stones.
They had many days to live in Nova ahead of them.
Today was practice for adapting to Nova.
The resources around the portal had already been completely looted by diligent novices, leaving nothing to do, and except for groups that came to the mountains to hunt or gather, everyone else was just coming to collect firewood.
Maybe it was because Cheol-du's crew was the only one climbing the mountain. Whatever the reason, a few monsters who clearly thought they owned the place weren't happy about the visitors.
“Grrrrrrr.”
“Oh. A monster, right?”
“Who knows? If it leaves a body, it's just an animal.”
He carefully sized up the thing circling them.
It didn’t seem stronger than an ogre, but the number was the problem.
‘Four of them.’
The wolf pack circled the group quite cautiously, as if timing when to attack.
Cheol-du, on the other hand, had split off from the group. He didn't even have a spear, just standing there empty-handed. He looked like easy pickings to the wolves.
“Kuaah!”
These weren't like Earth wolves. They weren't cautious or patient at all – they just charged, roaring.
Cheol-du struck the head of the wolf that leaped powerfully to bite his neck.
Thwack!
Its jaw got all twisted, and it went down hard. Surprisingly, it shook its head a few times and got back up, wobbly but standing.
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“Oh!”
Even though the impact was accurately delivered, it seemed insufficient to kill the wolf in one blow.
‘Damn, I've still got a lot to learn.’
Cheol-du suppressed the burgeoning arrogance and drew the bone knife from his waist.
Fists ain't working? Time for the shiv.
“Grrrrr.”
It didn't kill it outright, but the hit definitely messed it up. The other wolves got a little more careful after seeing that.
Then I’ll have to go first.
Thwack!
Cheol-du rushed towards the staggering wolf and delivered a soccer kick.
Thwack!
The kick snapped its head around with a sickening crack.
The wolf rolled a few times, trying to get up, but Cheol-du was already on it, driving his knee down on its neck.
Crunch!
He felt the neck bone break under the weight of his knee.
He'd planned to finish it with the bone knife, but this worked too. Dead is dead.
“Kuh-huhng!”
He heard another wolf coming up behind him – probably figured it was a good time to attack – and threw up his arm.
Crunch!
The wolf probably thought it had him when it chomped down on his forearm.
Wham!
Cheol-du swung his forearm, into which the teeth hadn’t even sunk, and slammed the wolf to the ground.
Those wolf teeth weren't getting through ogre skin.
“Grrr, Kkaeeeeng!”
Before it could even growl and get up, Cheol-du mounted it and stabbed its neck with the bone knife.
The wolf twitched a few times and then went limp.
In the meantime, the other two wolves lost their will to fight and fled.
“B-boss, you're incredible!”
Sa-ho started sucking up, and the rest of the Oh-dol-yi crew piled on the praise. Cheol-du decided to mess with them.
"Laying it on a bit thick, aren't ya?"
“Whoa.”
“Just messing with you.”
Meanwhile, the wolf corpses dissolved into light.
Cheol-du picked up the goblin coins left behind by the light.
Three goblin coins dropped per wolf.
Same as the goblin shaman, but these wolves were way tougher to take down.
“Huh? A stat stone.”
Cheol-du picked up a green stat stone.
<Orb of Agility>
Permanently slightly increases reaction speed.
- Can be activated with 10 goblin coins.
“Oh!”
It was a type of stat stone he had never seen before.
“Agility is a first.”
“Let’s see.”
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Jin-tae took it and examined it, then nodded.
“Reaction speed.”
Then Seo Jong-du piped up.
“You gotta take at least one agility stone for every three strength ones. That's the best way.”
“Huh? Why?”
“Doesn't matter how strong you get, if you're slow as an elephant, you're screwed.”
“Keeps you from getting slow and bulky.”
“Really?”
Cheol-du nodded.
<Agility has slightly increased.>
Once he activated it, that was it. No waiting around.
His barbarian senses picked up the change right away.
‘Reaction speed.’
Maybe if he maxed out his agility, he could even dodge bullets?
Of course, you'd need the 'explosive power' to actually move that fast, too.
“Ah.”
Cheol-du took out the spoils he had obtained yesterday from his pocket. It was the four stat stones that Yong-gu had had yesterday.
That greedy bastard Yong-gu had been hoarding all the stat stones.
“Ah, so that’s why that guy was just hoarding strength stones.”
“Yeah, you gotta balance them out to get the best effect.”
“Oh.”
Cheol-du absorbed two strength stones himself and gave one to Jin-tae.
“Huh? I don’t have enough goblin coins?”
“Here.”
Cheol-du even tossed him the coins, and Jin-tae caught them, looking stunned.
“Absorb it. It’s your third one. Take agility next time.”
“Oh, okay. Thanks.”
“Damn, robbing people is way easier than hunting...”
Bet you anything, once this place gets crowded, we'll start seeing bandits and raiders.
Cheol-du looked at the last strength stone, then glanced at Jong-du and the others.
“You guys play rock-paper-scissors.”
“Yes?”
Then, quick-witted Sa-ho shouted.
“Loser's out! Rock, paper, scissors, shoot!”
Papapap.
“I won.”
Oh-ho shot his hand up, grinning like he'd won the lottery.
“Here, you take it.”
“Whoa, th-thanks, Boss!”
Oh-ho, who was overwhelmed with emotion after receiving the stat stone, soon became dejected.
“Uh, Boss, I'm broke. No coins.”
“Damn, what have you been doing, slacking off?”
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“……”
He wanted to say, 'The boss took them all,' but he knew better than to talk back.
“Here.”
“Th-thank you.”
He clutched the coins, his hand shaking. They vanished, and a '10' appeared on the back of his hand.
Swish.
Light flickered from the stat stone and was soon absorbed into Oh-ho.
“Heot!”
It was his first time using a stat stone.
Back in the gang, Yong-gu and his number two, Yang Mun-sik, kept almost all the stat stones for themselves.
Among the six subordinates, Seo Jong-du was the only one who had obtained a stat stone. And that was just one strength and one sense.
“How do you feel?”
“A-amazing. Freaking awesome.”
Cheol-du smiled faintly at the boisterous guys and promised.
“Anyone who pulls their weight gets one.”
“Ooh!”
Cheol-du grinned and took the lead, heading up the mountain.
They were tough, able to take a punch from Cheol-du, but their hides weren't ogre-thick. A wooden spear could still do some damage.
As they climbed higher into the mountains, people became scarce. Naturally, Cheol-du’s group became targets for monsters.
After a few more fights, they figured out how to tell beasts from monsters.
Most beasts would just run if you got too close, but monsters would attack right away.
“Goblins really aren’t showing up at all.”
They were supposed to be like fairies or something, but they hadn't seen a single goblin hair.
Then again, goblins were pretty much bald anyway.
“We’ve also been out hunting several times, but we haven’t encountered goblins even once.”
“Really?”
It was only day 2 in Nova.
There might be a place somewhere in Nova where goblin groups live, or perhaps they were specific monsters that only appeared in the doomsday test.
“I heard about it from someone. Apparently, they caught a goblin in New Seoul a couple of months back...”
“Okay.”
“……”
Seo Jong-du looked dejected when his words were cut off, but he practiced the attitude of a true subordinate.
‘Keep it short and don't talk back. Got it.’
That's how you learn to be a good lieutenant – figure out what the boss wants and give it to him.
Next time the boss asks about something, keep it short and sweet.
After that, the group fought seven more battles and managed to reach the middle of a fairly high mountain.
They found a rocky outcrop, high enough that there were no trees blocking the view. They could see everything.
“If we look from there, we’ll be able to see the whole area.”
“Let’s go.”
The group climbed onto the rock and looked towards the portal.
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“Oh.”
“Magnificent.”
“Wow…”
Everyone was blown away by the view.
Untouched forests, fields, and a river winding its way past the portal...
It was pure, untouched wilderness, with the shimmering portal adding a touch of magic.
It was like something out of a fantasy novel.
“Can you see over there?”
But Cheol-du was looking past all that, pointing towards something far beyond the forest where the soldiers were camped.
“Huh? Isn’t that smoke?”
“……”
Cheol-du squinted, trying to get a better look.
He could make out some kind of structures – buildings, maybe?
And there were things moving around, too small to make out. Like ants.
Either a human settlement or... maybe a goblin village?
