Ch.1010. Ambush

After passing through the tunnel that led from the cavern, several small dugouts were revealed. Inside, baby goblins were crawling around, so young they could barely open their eyes.

“Kill them.”

Gert coldly muttered. They couldn’t spare them out of pity. Not that such a thought had even crossed his mind.

The men stomped on the goblins’ necks with uncomfortable expressions. It was faster and easier than stabbing them to death.

And so the one-sided massacre passed. While removing the source of trouble was the obvious choice, it somehow left a dirty aftertaste. Perhaps because the opponents couldn’t even resist. Someone spat on the ground.

“Let’s go back.”

Once they confirmed the dungeon was completely empty, the return journey finally began.

Typically, goblins collect odds and ends in their dwellings, but these ones must have been poor as nothing was found. Just some unusable bones and a few crude stone knives.

Naturally, no one wanted to take anything. Led by Gert, the group exited the cave. The sun was setting beyond the horizon. If they didn’t hurry back, night would fall.

Since there was no longer any need to watch for goblins in the area, they moved faster than when they had come. Everyone was eager to rest their tired bodies.

With tension completely released, the group chatted brightly with each other. However, only Rex maintained a blank expression with his lips tightly sealed.

“Are you alright?”

Joan approached him. Rex merely nodded his chin while still staring into empty space.

“You’ve been acting strange since we were in the cave. Like you’re entranced by something. Snap out of it.”

“Mind your own business. It’s really nothing.”

Seeing that Joan would keep pestering him until he answered, Rex sighed deeply and opened his mouth.

In truth, Joan wasn’t entirely wrong. Rex was indeed distracted by something.

‘The power of the mark has increased.’

The scene from the cave kept flashing before his eyes. Golden particles flowing from the goblins’ corpses. When he absorbed them, vitality surged through him just like when the mark first manifested.

The energy was incomparable to what he’d gained during the coming-of-age ceremony. He could tell without even moving his body. He had become at least twice as strong. It was a kind of intuition.

‘Is it because I fought risking my life? Or because I killed?’

Perhaps both had an influence.

However, killing the baby goblins hadn’t caused any change, which suggested that the mark’s power only grew when facing opponents who could put up some kind of fight. Rex was convinced that killing those who couldn’t even resist was useless.

Wasn’t that what the giant who blessed him had said? It meant that to become stronger, he needed to keep finding opponents of similar or greater skill.

[Your soul is destined to walk a thorny path from birth. Being a swordsman is truly your calling.]

The giant’s words, muttered with satisfaction, suddenly came to mind.

“Anyway, I realized something from this incident. That I’m softer than I thought. I can’t do this kind of thing ever again.”

Rex’s thoughts were interrupted by the sudden comment. Looking to the side, he saw Joan scratching the back of his head as he continued.

“Everything I’ve called fighting until now was just child’s play. When I was just throwing punches, I thought I was the strongest, you know.”

Rex recalled how Joan had fought in the cave. He had been swinging his club quite effectively, so it was hard to understand why he was now talking about weakness.

Joan had killed the most goblins after Rex and Gert. Tom surprisingly contributed less as his role was to rescue anyone who fell behind. The other men from the youth council had mostly just flailed around.

Considering it was his first battle, he had done quite well. Joan made an awkward expression as he explained.

“Actually, I was planning to become a mercenary when I grew up. But mercenaries face more dangerous situations than this every day, right? When I thought about that, I realized I couldn’t handle it. From tomorrow, I’ll just quietly learn my father’s trade.”

He seemed to have been quite shocked by today’s dungeon experience. When you think about it, that was the normal reaction. Even Rex, who had a blessing unknown to others, was shaken.

A life as a bloody swordsman, or a humble life no different from now? Rex still couldn’t decide.

“It’s better to live thin and long than short and thick, don’t you think?”

“Well…”

Rex let his words trail off. Couldn’t I just live long and thick? he thought to himself.

Joan seemed to have said all he wanted to say and closed his mouth. Rex wasn’t in the mood for chitchat either, so silence followed for a while.

As they continued along the forest path, night fell. The moon embedded in the pitch-black sky shone softly.

Even though they could barely see a step ahead, Gert strode forward unhesitatingly as if he lived in a different world.

The others walked carefully, looking down at their feet. They were almost there, and tripping over a tree root now would be an unfortunate accident.

Soon, the bushes and trees that had been hindering their steps became sparse, and eventually a wide path appeared.

“Oh, I can see it!”

Someone at the front shouted in an energetic voice. Everyone rushed forward without hesitation.

However, they wore expressions of shock as soon as the scene came into view.

“Is this a dream?”

Someone muttered foolishly, but no one corrected them. The sight was that surreal.

In the deep darkness of night, only the village was unusually bright. Rex couldn’t believe his eyes.

All the houses clustered together on the open plain were burning. Had some foolish child played with fire and accidentally spread it? No, such a large fire couldn’t have started from something so trivial. Everyone stared at the raging flames, speechless.

That’s when it happened. A faint scream—”Kyaaak!”—came from somewhere. Gert’s expression hardened. Only he realized what was happening in the village.

“It’s an attack!”

The young men, who had never imagined their village would be attacked in their lifetime, gasped. Someone asked with a stupid look:

“An attack? By whom?”

“That’s not important right now! Quickly, follow me!”

Gert shouted with a sharp voice and ran off without looking back. The young men hesitated for a moment before chasing after him. They watched in astonishment as Rex overtook them all.

Is that speed even humanly possible? Isn’t he a monster? They all thought in unison.

Rex himself didn’t notice the change in his body. He just ran desperately. As they got closer to the village, the blazing heat intensified. It felt like his skin would burn.

He had a bad feeling. He hoped it was just his imagination, but that hope was shattered as soon as they entered the village.

“No, please stop! Please!”

Men with bushy beards were dragging a middle-aged woman somewhere.

There were three unfamiliar faces in total. One was roughly grabbing the woman’s hair while the other two were molesting her body, snickering.

Around them, bodies lay scattered haphazardly, making the situation painfully clear.

“Mother!”

A young man who had just witnessed the scene wailed. The thugs turned around in surprise. But Gert had already fired his crossbow.

“Guk!”

A man whose chest was pierced by the bolt coughed up blood and collapsed. The other two tried to react hastily, but their movements were slow as they were in the process of lowering their pants. They must have had impure intentions.

“W-wait. Where did you bastards come from… Kuk!”

Rex leaped forward in one bound and swung his axe. The axe blade, brought down with all his might, crushed the skull and became embedded in it. Seeing his companion’s head split vertically, the remaining thug slumped to the ground.

As if his legs had given out, the last remaining thug crawled away trying to escape, but stopped abruptly at the sound of footsteps behind him.

With jerky movements, he turned around to see fierce eyes looking down at him.

“My lord. P-please spare me.”

The man begged with a servile smile. Rex raised his axe. There wasn’t even any value in talking to him.

Kwajik!

Rex pulled his axe from the limp corpse. After roughly shaking off the dripping blood, he turned around.

Gert was looking at him with an expression of indecipherable complexity. Rex was about to say something when the young man interrupted. It was the one who had called out “Mother!” to the woman being dragged by the thugs.

“Are you alright? Mother!”

“Henry! You’re back… I was worried.”

The young man called Henry knelt down and supported the woman. She stood up with difficulty, coughing. She looked like she might lose consciousness at any moment after being tormented by the thugs, but Gert spoke in a firm tone:

“I understand your confusion, but the situation is dire. Can you tell us what happened in the village?”

“About an hour ago, a band of robbers entered the village as they pleased. Around thirty of them… They just barged into houses, stole belongings, and captured young women, taking them somewhere. They killed men of all ages on the spot…”

The woman trembled as if recalling a terrible memory.

The people’s expressions darkened at her story.

This commotion had started an hour ago—they were too late. Wait, what about my family? A chilling thought crossed everyone’s minds.

“I-I’m going back home.”

“Me too! My mother is alone…”

Before Gert could open his mouth, the young men blurted out their intentions and ran off. Some left without saying anything at all.

It’s human nature not to give up until seeing with one’s own eyes, even when the future is obvious.

“I’m sorry.”

Tom also bowed his head and withdrew.

“Let’s go.”

Gert moved urgently. The sound of his teeth grinding was clearly audible. Rex swallowed dryly. He had never seen his father like this before.

Even when dealing with the goblins, he hadn’t blinked an eye, but now he was sweating and restless. That father of his, who always maintained an expressionless face and calm demeanor…

“Lord.”

Gert murmured softly.

Rex moved his legs hurriedly. Joan was panting beside him, trying to keep up. Their paths were the same for part of the way.

“…Then I’ll be going too.”

After a while, they reached a fork in the road, and Joan departed.

Whooosh!

Houses engulfed in flames spewed gray smoke.

Rex’s face contorted.

The acrid smoke stung his nose. It was the smell of death.