âKhem!â
I coughed loudly to cover up the embarrassing situaon.
But unfortunately, the goblin king didnât display any sort of response to my coughing sounds.
Did he not hear me?
âUhhuhhum!â
I made another coughing sound.
This me, thankfully the goblin king reacted.
He stopped moving, looked around, then started doing his thing again.
...Fuck.
âUhhum! Uhhuhhum!â
I made a noise loud enough to stop a marketplace aune dead in her stracks.
If he doesnât hear this, it means his sense of hearing has problems.
Or heâs just really horny.
Please fucking stop, please!
I finally met the goblin king face to face.
Aer jumping out of bed and rushing to grab his robes, the goblin king asked, âW-Who are you!â
A queson straight to the core.
The problem was that itâs hard to answer that queson.
It wasnât because I didnât want to reveal my identy, but because I couldnât be sure of what my identy was.
What would be a good way to introduce myself?
I pondered for a moment.
âAssassin.â
It was a good choice.
Of courWse, not for the goblin king
The green face froze.
And the piful and old goblin dragged himself out of bed and changed his composure.
He couldnât even gather himself from being surprised, but he regained his self-control upon hearing my answer.
It was a rather impressive sight to see him becoming dignified in the face of danger.
I honestly admired the goblinâs transformaon from a man whose nightly duty was cut short into a king facing an
assassin.
The goblin king yet again displayed his dignity.
âI donât believe Iâve done anything to displace the human kingdoms.â
I agree with the senment.
The guards at the fortress werenât hosle towards humans, but rather he let me through without inspecon.
The city itself is amicable towards humans and they arenât skepcal either.
âTrade guild? Seems like they want to exert influence over the city aer killing me. But I donât know the method.â
The goblin king connued with a calm tone.
It was a calm atude, but he wasnât calm.
What reason did he have to explain the details to an assassin?
None.
Heâs just connuing on to buy me for a plan.
He didnât try to call guards.
I made quite a ruckus in this bedroom.
If the guards outside didnât react to that, it meant that I had already taken care of them.
âItâs not like thereâs rare minerals or specialty goods on this land either.â
I needed a beer subject.
âIâm not an assassin sent by the kingdom or the trade guild.â
â... Then who sent you?â
It wasnât the sort of queson an assassin would ever answer.
So, I could avoid answering without remorse.
âWho knows.â
The goblin king stopped speaking whatever came to his mind to try and think of ways to get out of this situaon.
Instead, he focused on me.
That was good.
âRather, I have something Iâd like to ask. Iâd be pleased if you would answer.â
The goblin didnât let down his guard but couldnât hide the relief and hope in his eyes.
He probably thought I was here to deliver a message or a warning instead of assassinang him.
But my goal was honestly just to ask this queson.
âHave you done anything that would anger or annoy the gods? Or seriously endanger the peace of this world?â
Up unl now, whenever I saw a âterminateâ message, I didnât have any doubts.
The targets were usually necromancers, doppelgängers, demon kings and other easily-idenfiable villains who
endangered world peace.
But this goblin king is different.
His reign was superb, humane... no, the best thing I have seen out of goblins.
The city was peaceful and wealthy.
It was a stage without any major conflict.
But the tutorial requested the terminaon of the goblin king and ordered the murder of countless goblin soldiers.
I wondered why.
If there was no reason...
Did they make us aack this peaceful city without a reason, just to test challengers?
It was something I had to know.
It was possible that the tutorial stages have nothing to do with good or evil.
It wasnât something that I was unfamiliar with.
Fundamentally, the gods in this tutorial donât seem very kind-hearted.
The Earth is infested with monsters, and hell is unfolding.
If abducng people to make them superhuman in order to defend themselves isnât kindhearted, what is?
Even glancing through the community, peopleâs atudes were mainly amicable when it came to the tutorial.
There are unfathomable numbers praising the gods, comparing them to gods nave to Earth.
It was all the more common in people who entered the tutorial aer experiencing the mayhem caused by
monsters.
Some also researched doctrines of gods and idenfied themselves as believers of a parcular god.
But there are no Hell Difficulty challengers that praise the kind-heartedness of gods.
At least as far as I know.
The goblin king went silent for a moment at my queson.
It was a weird reacon.
Wouldnât one normally ask what that means?
âDo you happen to be a godâs Apostle?â
His calm voice started to shake.
It seems as though he had something on his mind.
I nodded in affirmaon.
To tell the truth, I wasnât an apostle.
But I was something similar.
[The God of Adventure is pleased.]
Huh? Why is the God of Adventure pleased?
All of a sudden.
[The God of Slowness rebukes someone.]
[The God of Duels vehemently denies someoneâs noon.]
[The God of Death mocks someone.]n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om
[The God of Adventure is embarrassed.]
I wasnât sure what they were doing, but I ignored them for now and focused on the goblin king.
The goblin king was noceably anxious.
âWhat were you planning? Answer honestly.â
I asked him in an overtly apostle-like tone.
âI-It wasnât craed by us. I happened to acquire it by chance and hoped I could use it to fulfill my personal desires.â
Craed. Acquired. Desire.
All the key words.
âBring it.â
âSir?â
âBring it to me and show me.â
Not that I knew what it was.
âYes sir.â
âDonât even think about escaping or calling the soldiers. Itâs annoying. I donât have much me le, and if you
cannot prove your innocence Iâll act as planned.â
This is probably enough inmidaon.
The goblin king seems to think of me as an apostle sent to punish him.
âPlease wait here for a moment.â
The goblin king le aer those words.
I deliberated the dialogue in the recently-vacated room.
âHey...â
It wasnât an empty room!
The goblinâs partner was sll here.
She had put on her gown and asked nervously.
âCan... I leave?â
âAh, yes. Feel free.â
I said to the goblin female running out of the room.
âMy sincere apologies!â
Of course, the goblin female ran out and closed the door before I could finish my apologies.
I waited for the goblin king while organizing my thoughts in the now, truly, empty room.
It took the goblin king a while to come back.
Just before I decided to go and catch the goblin king myself.
âIf you were just a lile bit late, I would have went aer you myself.â
âH-How could I possibly run from an Apostle?â
It wasnât likely.
The goblin king seemed to be short of breath and was sweang profusely.
Probably because he was rushing to bring back the item.
Or, maybe because he was looking for the guards.
âIt would have been interesng in itself if you ran.â
âBut not f W or me. Haha...â
He laughed as if his anxiety lessened.
But with a forced smile.
The goblin king brought back a small black sphere.
The sphere was large enough to fill my hand was smooth and had quite a he to it.
âIâve already told you, but we acquired it by chance; we didnât cra it.
âI think I heard something about you fulfilling your wishes with this.â
âI... did. But I havenât tried yet.â
The moment before he tried, huh?
Is this stage meant to stop the aempt by dispatching a challenger to take care of the king?
If so, what happens aer his aempt?
And what is this sphere that makes the gods uneasy?
At the very least, the goblin king seems to assume that this sphere is the cause.
I examined the sphere, but I couldnât make out a shred of mana in the sphere.
How did he plan to use this thing?
Instead, I injected my mana into it
The mana couldnât enter and was repelled.
As if it was full of a different type of mana.
Is it a stone that repels mana?
âHow did you plan to fulfill your wish with this?â
âI heard that it was possible if you use the power inside. From what the magicians told me...â
Power within the sphere.
It meant that thereâs something inside here.
[All of the gods of the Hundred Gods Temple are watching you closely.]
[The gods of the Hundred Gods Temple are nervous.]
I tried to absorb the sphereâs energy.
As if sucking out mana.
I didnât feel anything being absorbed.
It felt as though I were trying to absorb something when there was nothing.
But.
There was something coming inside me.
The âsomethingâ that I couldnât feel kept coming.
Even so, I couldnât figure out what it was, nor feel it
The hairs on my body rose up from the peculiar sensaon.
It was a dreadful sensaon, having something that I didnât know coming into me.
[The gods of the Hundred Gods Temple start a vote.]
[Approval : 94 votes in favor, 4 votes against, 2 votes are abstained.]
[The moon has passed with a majority. It now invokes force over someone.]
[The gods of the Hundred Gods Temple start a vote.]
[Approval : 95 votes in favor, 4 votes against, 1 vote is abstained.]
The messages started to appear for no reason.
Before I could understand the meaning, my body was moved.
Aer a brief flash, once I opened my eyes, I was no longer standing in the goblin kingâs bedroom.
I was at the entrance of the 5th floor stage.
What is this?
[Round 24, Day 2. 8h 40m]
It wasnât me to be moved from the 4th floor stage onto the 5th floor stage yet.
Then this meant I was moved by force through the vote of the gods.
Like the me the God of Adventure moved me on the 5th floor previously.
It wasnât a pleasant feeling.
I didnât like being moved in a parcular way by the influence of others.
Apart from the unpleasantness, I wondered what the reason was.
It wasnât part of the concept of the 4th floor to move the challenger by force, so there is definitely a reason why I
was moved.
And the first thing that came to my mind was, the black sphere.
And the power absorbed from the black sphere.
Something that I couldnât feel or be aware of but proved itself by diffusing into my body.
That energy was clumped in my right arm.
I couldnât feel the energy, but I have a precise understanding of my body and observe it closely.
It was possible for me to locate the foreign substance and set up walls around it to make sure it wouldnât spread to
another area.
I focused on the energy clumped in my arm.
I heightened every bit of my senses and tried to feel something from the energy I couldnât feel.
Aer about an hour, I could organize my findings.
First, this energy has aributes similar to mana.
Second, the energyâs identy wasnât hidden through magical means.
At least, thatâs what I could discern at my level.
Third, aer examining this energy for an hour, I got a feeling.
It was an abstract feeling, but I was sure because of my experience.
The feeling from this energy was similar to the divine power of Authories.
End
Gandara
Authorâs note
Itâs Friday!
+Thanks for the suggeson post Gupaengee-nim(honorific)
+I have no plans on revealing the future plot
Itâs spo (Spoilers).
I havenât revealed it even during the free season, I canât tell you now. Fufu.
+Ten-thousand Gods Temple -> Hundred Gods Temple. I keep making mistakes T T
The above is a translaton of the notes in the raws.