I Am Here to Help You

The battle erupted quickly.

Leven, standing at the forefront of the party, raised his shield, holding it horizontally in front of him. With a hearty shout, he charged into the goblin formation, shield first.

Contrary to the clumsy, rigid impression his tall, sturdy build might give, Leven charged with surprising speed, faint white streams of energy visibly streaking past the edge of his shield.

He was like a truck at full throttle, charging directly into the goblin ranks with his Oak Greatshield.

Behind him and on the flanks, Doyle, Gauss, and Daphne followed closely.

"Thump!"

Leven, with his full horsepower and tonnage, collided directly with several goblins wielding small wooden shields at the front.

After an extremely brief struggle.

Leven's immense strength erupted like an undersea volcano!

Five goblins with wooden shields were sent flying and overturned by Leven's sweeping shield!

Gauss, following behind Leven, had a look of admiration flash in his eyes.

In actual combat, Leven's "Greatshield Charge" was far more effective than during training. Perhaps because there were actual targets, it looked incredibly explosive.

The five goblins with wooden shields tumbled away, rolling on the ground with wails, their wooden clubs and small round shields dropped.

Seeing the goblins about to pick up their weapons and shields.

Doyle, from behind, leaped forward, swinging his longsword down.

"Swish!"

A cold glint flashed.

The next moment, a terrifying bloodstain stretched diagonally from the goblin's left shoulder across its entire body. The horrifyingly huge wound instantly robbed the goblin of its strength to struggle.

The goblin flew backward, never to rise again.

"So fast!"

Gauss felt a bit anxious.

The five goblins with wooden shields had been broken by Leven's skill charge, their combat strength greatly diminished.

Although his stamina was good, his explosive strength was inferior to Doyle's.

Gauss's figure only arrived after Doyle had already slain a goblin with a single sword strike.

Fortunately, it wasn't too late.

A goblin was in front of him, its back to him, struggling to get up while clutching its wooden shield and club.

Gauss, having arrived, naturally wouldn't miss this excellent opportunity. He put force into his arm and wrist simultaneously, thrusting his rapier directly into its back.

The sharp rapier pierced its lower back, as effortlessly as cutting through tofu, then through muscle, intestines, and abdomen.

The rapier pierced straight through the goblin, like a candied haw on a stick!

"Waaah!!" The goblin, not yet fully standing, was caught completely off guard by the sudden sneak attack, letting out a piercing scream.

Gauss controlled the rapier, stirring it rapidly inside the goblin, then quickly withdrew it.

Thick blood mixed with some unidentifiable brown substance gurgled out of its wound.

"Killed Goblin *1"

"Total Monsters Killed: 19"

Another one!

Killing such an easy target made Gauss feel happy.

Unfortunately, before he could pick off more enemies.

A spear goblin, originally behind the wooden shield goblins, bypassed Leven who was holding off a goblin with a steel knife. It gripped its spear tightly and charged rapidly towards Gauss!

A crooked, but sharpened stone spear with jagged edges, carrying a gust of wind, thrust towards Gauss.

Sensing the attack, Gauss's mind raced.

The scenery in his vision began to slow down.

He was no longer the novice who had just arrived in this world and killed a goblin with a sneak attack. Facing such an attack, he appeared to be handling it with ease.

He stamped his foot and dodged to the side.

Then, he seized the moment when the spear goblin's body was stiff from its missed thrust.

He activated Mage Hand, pulling the goblin, whose body had not yet fully regained its balance.

Under normal circumstances, this pull might have had a mediocre effect, but at this moment, the enemy was in an awkward state of having expended their old strength and not yet gained new momentum, so the effect was naturally excellent.

The goblin stumbled, losing its balance.

"Squelch!"

Gauss's rapier pierced the goblin's abdomen again, stirred, and withdrew, the entire sequence flowing like water.

His experience in killing goblins was growing.

"Slay Goblin *1"

"Total Monsters Slain: 20"

Gauss's gaze swept across the battlefield.

Suddenly, he caught sight of Doyle sending a goblin and its shield flying, heading straight for him.

"I'll help you!"

Arriving before Doyle, Gauss strode forward.

His rapier pierced the heart of the goblin, which had fallen and temporarily lost its ability to move.

Stab! Twist!

"Slay Goblin *1"

"Total Monsters Slain: 21"

Doyle blinked at the sight.

"Thanks."

Something felt off.

Oh well, since Gauss helped, he should hurry up and deal with the other goblins.

Less than ten minutes passed in the blink of an eye.

The battle ended quickly.

Gauss raised an eyebrow at the ground littered with the dismembered bodies of green-skins.

He took a steadying breath.

This battle was unexpectedly easy, so easy it was almost unbelievable.

Was this the efficiency of teamwork?

Besides "helping" Doyle with one more goblin he'd claimed, Gauss had also used Magic Missile to take out a goblin archer that had targeted him from a distance.

In this frontal battle lasting a few minutes, leveraging the team's advantage, especially the opportunities created by Leven and Doyle, he had easily slain a total of 5 goblins.

His total monster kill count reached 23.

That was already close to half of the target of 50.

Looking back, the only real danger in the entire battle was an arrow shot by the last goblin archer that had targeted him.

However, he'd predicted it and dodged, the arrow grazing his gauntlet.

Fortunately, his leather armor was sturdy, and he wasn't injured.

The goblin archer was then killed by a Magic Missile he fired back.

He figured, after killing 6 goblins without taking damage during the ambush, there were only 14 goblins left.

Their team had 6 people. Excluding Daphne, whose combat ability was slightly weaker, everyone else had a significant advantage against the goblins.

Each person possessed one or two attributes beyond the average human's capabilities, wore leather armor or better, had greater strength, moved faster, and wielded sharper weapons.

This disparity in strength was something the numerical difference of 14 versus 6 couldn't overcome.

After efficiently finishing off the goblins, the group rested on the spot before unhurriedly starting to clean up the battlefield.

First, they each collected the quest item: the goblins' left ears.

Using daggers and small knives, they each severed the wide, pointed left ears of the goblins.

Judging by their practiced movements, everyone present, except for Gauss, was clearly experienced, having cut off countless goblin ears before.

Collecting the ears, the small bags became bulging.

The quest they had accepted this time had a good unit price; each goblin was worth 1 silver coin in bounty.

This small bag represented 20 silver coins.

Each person would receive a little over 3 silver coins.

It might not sound like much, but to put it another way, this quest reward was enough for Gauss to live comfortably at Sophia's Hostel for 2 months, with food and lodging included.

And they had only been out for three days, most of which was spent traveling. The actual work – scouting, setting traps, and fighting monsters – totaled less than 2 hours.

Working for 3 days to be able to slack off for 2 months – if the "three-day-wage" workers from his past life found out, they might be tempted to come, even if it was a bit dangerous.

Moreover, their earnings from this trip were far from over.

The goblins' spoils of war, their weapons, could also be sold for a good amount. This profit, not included in the reward, was also considerable.

The only thing that disappointed Gauss was that the two most valuable steel swords were quite damaged, likely not fetching a particularly high price.