We only get back to the village three days after being stuck inside the cave.
This is because I used Transfer to take us to the magic item I left underground, and then we went back to the valley to look around the buried entrance.
After finding no clues, I used Transfer again to return to the underground magic item, retrieved it, and we came back to the village.
But this time, I left a magic item near the entrance to the cave that will tell me if someone gets close. The culprit always returns to the scene of the crime! Not quite, it’s just something I made with Creation that will disappear if someone approaches it.
We’ve also gone north, since there were goblin sightings there too, but we didn’t find any traces of them.
“We took down all the goblins we found, but we don’t know if that’s all of them, so you should be cautious for a while.”
I feel like they’re going to complain, so I show them the corpses.
There’s forty-six in total, and upon seeing them, the village chief closes his mouth.
It’s clear they’re not paying enough for how many we hunted, especially considering there are superior species among them.
They’re goblins, but it still wouldn’t be worth it for regular adventurers. Not to mention that if low rank adventurers accepted this quest, they would either give up or not come out unharmed.
Since it would be hard to prove how many goblins there were, it would probably be marked as a failed quest for them. Although that would be taken back if other people took over the quest and proved how many there were.
“I-I understand.”
After looking at the goblins, the village chief bows and promises to be careful.
I hope it’s nothing, but I can’t help but feel like something is missing. We’re going to report this to the guild, but unfortunately, we have no proof that there’s anything there.
We may have made them more anxious, and the guild might think we’re just crazy.
We couldn’t tell where those reactions were coming from, but the reality is that we’re not all-powerful. There might be people out there who are better at exploring, so we’ll leave that decision to the guild.
We stay the night in the village, but I don’t see any monster reactions on Map.
◇ ◇ ◇
“Oh, it’s you guys. Are you done with the goblins?”
We meet Argo’s party on our way to the guild in Avid.
They say they’re done testing their weapons on wolves, and are taking them to the workshop.
“I see… That does seem strange.”
“How should we report this?”
“Hn, I think you can just tell them what happened, and the guild can figure it out after that. And you hunted a lot of goblins, right?”
I tell them how much we hunted and collected.
“It would be dangerous if some newbies accepted that just because they’re goblins. Or maybe not, if they never even made it to the nest.”
Says Argo, because a regular adventurer would just head north, hunt a few goblins there, and report a job well done.
“Knowing too much can lead people to worry too much.”
Guilford nods with his arms crossed.
It’s true that we wouldn’t have gone to the valley if I didn’t have Map.
Then we head to the guild, and Argo and his party say they’re going to stroll around town.
It’s past noon, so the guild is deserted.
Most guilds tend to be busy in the morning and evening, but since there’s a dungeon in this town, it’s hard to tell when it will be busy.
“The goblin hunting quest? Do you have proof?”
“We brought them as they were…”
“As they were? You didn’t take them apart?”
The receptionist is surprised.
Goblins have no salable parts other than their magic stones, so no one brings them back like this. It’s just pointless effort.
“How many were there?”
“Forty-six.”
“F-forty-six?”
The receptionist lady is surprised by Hikari’s answer.
“I understand. What do you want to do about taking apart and processing the corpses? The reward changes a lot depending on whether you do it yourselves or have the guild do it.”
“The guild can take care of them.”
Then she takes us to where they take monsters apart.
“Come back with your certificate after you’re done depositing them.”
The receptionist leaves, and another employee tells me to start dumping the corpses, so I do.
“Hey hey, is this a goblin fighter? This isn’t a regular goblin either. Were there superior species?”
It makes sense that someone who takes monsters apart for a living can tell instantly.
“We can use the skin of this one. Hold on, let me check its condition.”
The employees split up and get to work.
“Take this.”
After a while, we receive a certificate, and the receptionist lady is surprised when she sees it.
She thought they were just goblins, but there were superior species mixed in there.
We take the reward and report on what happened by saying there might be more goblins, even if there were no traces.
After that, we go straight home. Argo and the others are back too, so we talk more about what happened, and take it easy.
Thank you for the treat.
Thanks for this weeks updates, & hope everybody has a good weekend. 😎👍