Ch 58 -- Goblin Subjugation Request
I went to the bulletin board to get a request immediately. As the receptionist had explained, rank G requests were quite limited. There were many menial jobs around town listed as requests but there was a note at the bottom of the list... oh, these jobs only earned one point. Another G rank request on the board was gathering medicinal herbs, worth two points. There were virtually no requests to subdue monsters suitable for G rank adventurers, only goblins but they were worth three points.
Uh, thatâs problematic. Right then, gathering medicinal herbs it is. I can do that. When I put my hand out to take the request for gathering medicinal herbs a thought came from Fer.
"Goblins, it says there."
"What? You can read those letters, Fer?"
"Who do you think I am?" Ferâs thought was tinged with annoyance. "Iâve lived a long time, remember, so learning to read human writing was nothing for me."
Yeah yeah, OK. But anyway goblins are out of the question. I put my hand out again to take the medicinal herbs request and Fer interjected with a thought. "Hey, I said âGoblinsâ didnât I?"
"Tough. Iâm going to take a request to collect herbs."
"You need points, you said. If you want to do that you should choose goblin subjugation since itâs got the highest points." Fer said.
"No, Iâll earn points by working hard (safety first is my motto)."
"Whatâre you talking about? Weâve not reached the ocean yet." Haah? Since when are you wanting to go to the ocean?
"I didnât say anything about it before, thatâs all." Fer shrugged. "I just decided. I want to eat Kraken and Sea Serpent." What the-? "So youâll have to get up to rank F as quickly as possible."
You might recall me mentioning my horrible experiences with goblins previously, no? Due to a certain someoneâs actions...
"Hey, Sui? What dâyou think we should do? You wanna go fire off some Acid Bullets again?" Fer said telepathically to Sui who stuck her lead out of the bag.
"A fight? Sui wants to go âpew pewâ shooting." Bah, Ferâs enlisted Sui on his side.
"No, Sui, we donât wanât to go âpew pewâ shooting, medicinal herbs, we want to go gather some donât we? Theyâll be made into all sorts of nice medicines." I argued desperately.
"Ehhh." Sui sounded disappointed. "Sui can make medicines to cure painful wounds. Better Sui goes to shoot âpew pewâ, fight." Unfortunately that was true, Sui had a restorative medicine creation skill.
"Sui agrees with me, take the goblin subjugation request."
"Goblins? Green goblins? Sui go âpew pewâ at the goblins, finish them off good." S- Sui-chan?
"Youâre outnumbered." said Fer contentedly. Gaaaah. I give up. I canât say no to cute Sui when she says she wants to go âpew pewâ and finish them off good. I plucked the goblin subjugation request off the board and took it to the receptionist.
* * * * *
The request entailed subjugating goblins which lived in the forest east of the city. The receptionist explained that was the most common place for them to appear. The request was for killing five goblins and the reward was three silver coins and three points. Right, letâs go hunt goblins and then return to the city. Thatâs best.
We ran into a group of three goblins as soon as we entered the forest.
"Aruji-, can I go âpew pew pewâ?" Sui asked excitedly.
"All yours." I said.
Pew pew pew. The goblins were hit in the belly by Suiâs Acid Bullets and fell to the ground with a thump. The dead goblins had large holes burned in their middles. Awesomely lethal, our Sui is.
"Skillful as ever, Sui. Weâll cut off the ears as evidence that we got the goblins, Sui, so remember to hit them in the belly like just now and donât aim for the head."
"I got it-"
Iâve got to cut off the right ears of the goblins to prove we killed them to claim the reward. Actually I donât really want to do it but I had to, I suppose... I took my knife and started cutting the ears off, dropping them into a sack I had bought on the way out of the city. I felt sick, uuuurp...
I pulled myself together and we moved off again, looking for more goblins in the forest.
"Hey, thereâs another five goblins over there." Fer said. I followed his gaze.
"Can Sui do it-?"
"Wait, Sui. This guy here will do it this time." Fer ordered. Me? Well, OK. Weâre in the forest so Iâll use Stone Bullet rather than Fireball. Right, concentrate and-
"Stone Bullet!-" Pebbles smacked into the goblins. Two fell down with a thump but the other three werenât hurt too much. They screamed as they ran towards us waving their clubs.
"Stone Bullet! Stone Bullet! Stone Bullet!-" The goblins running towards me fell down. Fuuh, I managed to stop them. I need to fire off three Stone Bullets to do the job it seems or some of them could get away. I should remember that. Safety first.
I bent down and cut off the ears of the dead goblins. With eight ears thatâs us done.
"Weâve completed the request, letâs go back to the city... Fer?" Fer was sniffing the ground then he looked up, gazing deep into the forest.
"Whatâs up?"
"Thereâs a goblin village up ahead."
"What, a village?"
"Letâs go."
"Whaddya mean, âletâs goâ. Weâre not going anywhere except back to the city."
"If you hunt more goblins, youâll get more points wonât you? So if we go to the goblin village and kill them all then youâll get lots of points."
Well, I suppose so but goblins and especially goblin villages hold bad memories for me.
"Sui, do you still wanna fight?"
"Uh-huh, Sui wants to fight more, shoot lots more âpew pew pewâ!"
Damn it, this bastardâs got Sui on his side again.
"Eh? Sui, weâve done enough, we could be back in the city in ten minutes."
"Eh-, donât. Sui wants to shoot more âpew pew pewâ, Aruji-"
Sui, when did you become such a battle maniac? You bounce around and jump up and down and are so healing and comfortable and thatâs enough.
"Thatâs how it is. Give up and get on me." Fer ordered. Geh, I lost again.
"Can I go âpew pew pewâ some more? Yahoo!" Sui bounced around and jumped up and down. Somehow that made me feel happier. Then she jumped up to my chest and trembled. "Thanks so much, Aruji- I love you-"
Ah, Sui-tan is sooo cute. She loves to fight but her true strength is in her cuteness.
"Hoi, hurry up." Yeah yeah. Iâm just enjoying being cuddled by Sui. I put her in her bag and then I straddled Ferâs back.