Useless Magical Artifact

The four stood before the ruined temple. It seemed to be something like a sacred site for the Goblin Tribe, so not a single Goblin wandered nearby. None had noticed that three and a half humans had arrived outside their holy temple.

As for that half, it was naturally Lamore. Only half his blood was human. But none of that mattered!

The newly appointed little shaman seemed to sense something and turned his head in confusion. That turn, however, would become the most terrifying moment of the little Goblin's life: four towering humans had surrounded him.

Yes, towering. To the little Goblin, even a petite girl like Yanxi was enormous, never mind Lamore, who stood nearly two meters tall.

Gak gak gak!! Gak gak!!

The little Goblin trembled, forcing himself to calm down. But Dean and the other three had no need to understand what he said.

The little Goblin knew he was in grave danger, but what could he do? Precisely because this ruined temple was the tribe's sacred site, none of his kind lived nearby. Even if he shouted his throat raw, his companions outside would never hear him. Besides, even if they did, could they reach him in time?

Gak gak gak!!

The little Goblin raised his scepter and spoke to Dean. The Mage's robe Dean wore had already told the little shaman that he was a Mage.

And he was a shaman, even if he had only just inherited the position! A shaman's dignity would not allow the little Goblin to flee or beg for mercy.

"Dean, he's challenging you!" Kana said hesitantly. It would have been so much easier for all four of them to attack together and finish the little Goblin off, but she could not disrespect a battle between Mages.

Like a battle between knights, it allowed absolutely no interference. Otherwise, it would be an insult to both combatants.

"Then bring it on!" Dean nodded. Facing the little Goblin, a little shaman, Dean could not afford to be careless. Although Goblins were no match for humans in terms of innate aptitude, he still dared not underestimate him.

Dean drew his staff. It was merely a little smoother and straighter than an ordinary twig, a thoroughly unremarkable wand. The little Goblin, meanwhile, held a Low-Level Magic Artifact.

By the look of their weapons alone, Dean had already lost—and lost so utterly that there was no comparison.

"Basic Binding Spell!" After a brief, two-second chant, a dark glow appeared beneath the little shaman's feet and instantly seized its target.

"Gak gak gak!" Just then, a streak of blue-green light flowed into the little shaman's body. Unfortunately, he had not been injured at all, so the healing light merely gave his spirits a lift.

"Look, magic! This little Goblin can actually use magic!" Kana said, watching the bound Goblin.

In everyone's eyes, an underage Goblin could not possibly cast a spell, even if he was a shaman. And the little Goblin before them had only just inherited the position. He was not yet an adult and barely had any mana, let alone enough to cast magic!

"It's because of that scepter. It lets this Goblin Shaman use the mana around him," Lamore said. The Healing Technique was his specialty, and he could see through the Goblin's Healing Magic at a glance.

"Magic Artifacts have a rudimentary consciousness that can help support their users with mana. Which brings us to a problem!" Dean turned to the three of them.

"As you all know, I don't have a single decent attack spell. Now that I've caught this new shaman, what am I supposed to do?" Dean said without the slightest shame. "What if this fellow can use attack magic? Am I supposed to fight a war of attrition with him?" He pointed at the bound little Goblin, sounding rather helpless.

"Take it, just take it!" Kana drew her hand axe, gripped it in her fair-skinned right hand, and hurled it straight at Dean's face.

"You two, listen carefully. The fact that Dean can't handle a single little Goblin must stay a secret, or Kana's Squad will never be able to show its face again!" Finally, furious that iron would not turn to steel, Kana roared, "Dean, you little brat, did you hear me? Don't tell anyone about this, or I'll skin you alive on the spot!!!"

The hand axe skimmed Dean's scalp and buried itself in a pillar of the ruined temple. Naturally, Kana had deliberately aimed at that angle. It would teach him a lesson without taking his life.

"Of course! Of course!" Dean shuddered and quickly ducked his head, going to retrieve the hand axe. But he was not all that strong, and it took a great deal of effort before he finally pulled it out of the pillar!

"Dean, please stop making Kana angry, or... or I don't know when we'll end up carrying you into the Temple! Please let Dean still be able to come back out after he's carried into the Temple someday!" Yanxi prayed silently, already having mapped out Dean's future!

As for being carried into the Temple, that generally happened only to people who were nearly beyond saving. In Yanxi's eyes, Dean was already traveling farther and farther down that road.

"Ah, that saved me a Life-Healing Spell!" Lamore said with a sigh of relief. Even though he was proficient in first-level healing spells, he did not want to cast that one. It was far too exhausting, draining both his strength and a particularly large amount of mana.

If I fully mastered the Demon Hand within Magic Hand, I could have caught that blade bare-handed today! Dean was still mulling it over, showing not the slightest remorse. He was even thinking of using his own magic to fight back.

Meanwhile, the little goblin had already cast three minor Healing Techniques. It seemed this little shaman had mastered only that one spell, never mind any attack magic.

Still, that was already remarkable. Given a goblin's aptitude, learning a spell while still a child was exceedingly rare, even if it was only the Healing Technique!

The outcome was naturally obvious. The little Goblin Shaman was no match for Dean at all. His choice to fight Dean had merely been a matter of a shaman's dignity... and his resolve to die in battle when escape was impossible.

Although Dean was a mage, he was only a support mage, so this was his first time taking a life.

Having ended the life of an intelligent being with his own hands for the first time, Dean seemed to undergo a slight change of mindset. Even if, in many places, goblins were not counted among the intelligent races.

After returning the hand axe to Kana, Dean did not look at the little shaman lying on the ground. He walked toward the Goblin Scepter that had fallen there.

He grabbed the Goblin Scepter, but the instant he did, it began trembling violently, as though trying to break free of his grip. It simply lacked the strength—or rather, the rudimentary intelligence inside this Magic Artifact refused to recognize Dean, a non-goblin, as its user.

"This seems to be a magic artifact exclusively for goblins!" After a moment of silence, Dean told the others rather helplessly.

"So you're saying this thing's worthless?" Kana's eyes widened. She took the scepter, and sure enough, she too was mercilessly rejected. Since it was worthless, she casually tossed it back to Dean.

"There are only two ways to use this scepter. The first is to have a goblin use it, which we can disregard. The second is to erase the consciousness inside." Dean paused, then said helplessly.

"Without that consciousness, it's just an ugly, ordinary wand."

(End of chapter)