The Power of Goblins

“Hey, mutant!”

I lowered my head at the voice calling me.

Although I had the name Shin-yeon, my title in this village had long since changed to mutant.

And I had learned years ago that turning my head at the call would only bring undeserved violence.

Therefore, I tried to quietly return home with my head lowered, but it seemed the goblins who called me were in quite a bad mood today.

Thwack—!

“Ugh…!”

A rock the size of a fist flew and hit my temple.

For a moment, my head rang with tinnitus and I staggered from where I had been walking, and a rough hand roughly grabbed my hair.

“Fucking mutant bastard, are you ignoring a goblin’s words? Are you crazy? Huh?”

“That’s just how mutant bastards are.”

“I can’t believe such a bastard is the Great Chief’s son…”

“It’s really embarrassing.”

A strong smell of alcohol wafted from the goblin who grabbed my hair. And from the three goblins approaching behind him.

Although it was important, it was a mistake to leave the house during the evening hours.

At this time, drunk and belligerent goblins ruled the village streets. It meant that there were people scattered everywhere who would pour out all kinds of violence and curses the moment they saw me.

Of course, it wasn’t that I didn’t know this, so I had tried to go home through alleys with few people, but unfortunately, this also worked against me.

-What’s this? Who’s acting like a thug?

-Oh, it’s just the mutant. Just ignore it.

-Let’s just go on our way.

Not only were there few people looking this way, but even those few who saw me clicked their tongues and spat out contemptuous gazes and insulting words.

And the four in front of me snickered as they heard the harsh words of passersby.

I lowered my head without hesitation in this all too familiar atmosphere.

“…I’m sorry.”

I swallowed the boiling emotions inside and showed a submissive attitude with my eyes lowered.

There were hundreds who were hostile to me, and only I was on my side.

There was no knife in my hand, and no chance to even grasp one.

The childhood friend who uniquely helped me in old stories didn’t exist, and this was a reality without kind adults to protect me.

This alley was already a place for the four to vent their frustrations on me.

Then I had to endure the immediate humiliation and at least minimize the violence that would soon come.

However, as I had experienced many times before.

“What kind of apology is that, you mutant bastard!”

“Guhk?!”

Thud—!

Just because I took a submissive attitude and admitted my fault, it didn’t unconditionally reduce the pain I would receive.

My head was thrown down and buried in the hard dirt ground, and as I clutched my face in pain, my abdomen was kicked.

Thwack—!!

“Kuh…!”

Then, as I exhaled a painful breath from my crushed lungs, the feet of the four goblins trampled all over my body.

In an instant, my clothes became rags and blood from lacerations stained my skin.

The beating didn’t end even though I had already received what seemed like more than enough pain. Rather, the pain felt in my dazed mind intensified as if it was just beginning.

And how long had I been buried in the beating with my eyes closed, even my sense of time dulled, in that moment?

Finally, when the goblins stopped their feet while belching from drunkenness, I slightly opened my eyes.

“Beating up trash makes me feel better.”

“Huff… Really? I just feel dirtier.”

“Oh no! That won’t do!”

The goblins who had beaten me to death were now catching their breath as if they had just done some refreshing exercise.

But I didn’t have time to feel any more anger at that, as I stopped breathing when I heard what they said next.

Usually, after inflicting this much violence, most would brush off their hands and turn away.

Their frustration had been vented sufficiently, and even outwardly, my appearance had become a complete mess.

However, the four in front of me seemed to have no intention of stopping here at all.

Rather, at one goblin’s words that he felt dirtier, another goblin clapped his hands with a pleased expression.

Then in an instant, the goblin showed a cauldron full of oil above his hand.

“You know, water and fire don’t work on us goblins? But this oil works well without any problems.”

“Oh ho, that means…?”

“Quickly light a fire! We should pour it on him!”

“That sounds good!”

Ha, they say they’ll pour oil.

I let out a hollow laugh inwardly at their words and muttered like that, but what flowed from my eyes were tears blurring my vision.

And before I could even feel the salty taste seeping into my mouth, I forcibly led my aching body and jumped up from my spot.

I had to run away.

I thought they would keep to some limit even so.

Although that limit had already far exceeded normal bounds, at least I had been able to get used to it after a few years.

The pain dulled, and the mind adapted.

But beneath what I thought was rock bottom, there was an even deeper bottom.

What I chose upon facing this for the first time was instinctive escape.

Grab—!

“You mutant bastard, you were quiet when being kicked, so why now?”

But my sluggish escape was simply blocked by having my hair grabbed again.

“What are you scared of? Even if you’re a mutant, if you’re a goblin you’ll heal in two weeks!”

“Hahaha!! But since he’s a mutant, won’t he not heal and be scarred for life?”

“That would look pretty good in its own way!!”

Along with the laughter of the other goblins that followed, the sound of boiling oil filled my ears.

The goblin who grabbed my hair made me kneel on the blood-soaked ground.

Then the hot cauldron slowly tilted over my head.

The boiling oil fell towards my face.

And the dream continued no further than that.

---

“Aaaaargh!!!”

I sat up in bed with a scream.

A lukewarm breeze brushed past my head as I turned it to avoid the oil.

A breeze that felt almost cool.

I looked around for a moment in my dazed mind, and only then came to my senses and wiped my forehead, which had become damp with cold sweat.

“…Damn nightmare.”

To not even be able to distinguish reality from dreams because I had a nightmare after a long time.

“I don’t like those bastards appearing in my dreams like that either.”

Moreover, the fact that the guys who appeared in the nightmare I happened to have were my worst enemies from the past was enough to make me feel irritated.

Among those many clansmen, the guys who beat and tortured me worse than anyone else. And the guys who participated in the Great Chief test with me.

Of course, they were the ones who tried to kill me during the Great Chief test, and at that time, I gave them the worst death, adding interest to everything they had done to me until then.

“Ah… Their expressions then were the best.”

Their heads were blown off in half by my hands, their entire bodies were torn like paper, and they met their deaths burned by an unquenchable fire from within.

Recalling the expressions they made then, the ecstatic emotion that arose somewhat relieved my irritated mood.

『So, have you woken up from the nightmare a bit?』

“…Yeah, I think I feel a bit better now.”

I picked up Hwa-gon, who was worried about me, and got up to look at the bustling humans moving around beyond the window of the tent.

“Come on everyone, let’s clean up quickly!”

“We’ve finally finished pioneering!!”

“We’re finally going home…!”s taking down the tents they had stayed in and cleaning up the dishes they had eaten from.

The place where humans were moving busily like that and where I was staring at such a sight was none other than inside the dungeon of the undeveloped gate.

After resolving the Gate Break incident the other day and the situation calmed down, the hunters’ pioneering of the gate resumed under So-eun and Jinhyun’s leadership.

The injured advance team was transferred to emergency facilities, but the 1st and 2nd follow-up teams, numbering 450 people, continued the pioneering after them.

The pioneering of the undeveloped gate began by setting up a temporary camp next to the lake where the fusion monster mass had resided.

That pioneering took place over two full days, and only today had all the hunters finished exploring the dungeon and were preparing to return home.

“It was quite fun. I was worried about losing enemies to others because there were so many people, but when I took the lead in squad-by-squad exploration, there wasn’t much to worry about.”

『The dungeon monsters were also quite powerful and worth fighting.』

“If possible, I’d like to have something like this happen again.”

Of course, not just the undeveloped gate pioneering, but I’d like to have the Gate Break and fusion monster mass too.

It was a thought that other hunters would be appalled at if they heard it, asking if I was crazy, but I was completely sincere.

Since it was the first time I had faced such a huge opponent, I felt like I could still feel the pounding of my heart that had been excited.

And how long had I been smiling while recalling that heartbeat from then? I got up from the window I had been leaning on and exhaled as if to empty the air from my lungs.

“Should I take a bath now? I sweated a lot because of that dirty nightmare.”

Looking at the humans cleaning up the tents, it seemed there wasn’t much time left until the return began.

So thinking I should finish grooming myself during that time, I got up from the window, but suddenly I heard the sound of running from afar.

Quite familiar human footsteps.

Therefore, I stopped my steps that were heading to the bathroom and waited for the owner of the footsteps, and eventually that owner stopped in front of the door of the tent where I was.

[Excuse me, Ancestor. May I come in for a moment?]

“Yeah, you can come in.”

The one who entered by opening the door at my permission was indeed Yeon-ah.

It was natural since only Yeon-ah would show such courtesy with footsteps like that just now.

And when I asked her with my eyes what the matter was, Yeon-ah cleared her throat once since it was morning and said to me:

“Your guest staying at our General Management Team tower, Neon, is having trouble controlling her power, so it seems you need to return quickly.”

“Power control?”

“Yes, as you ordered, we implanted a 93% synchronization rate mana stone in Neon, but…”

Yeon-ah trailed off after answering when I uttered a question at the unexpected topic of power control.

However, soon Yeon-ah cleared her throat a few times and then continued her interrupted words:

“Unlike usually gaining control of two or three of the four elements or the power of imagination materialization, Neon gained goblin strength and skin.”

“Ah, I see.”

As soon as I heard Yeon-ah’s words, I understood what she had just said and let out a sigh filled with pity.

“If that weakling gained a goblin’s body, she must be causing quite a ruckus by now.”

“…One floor has already been destroyed, they say.”

Yeon-ah said so as if her head was throbbing, but in a way, it could be seen as minimal damage so far.

Thinking of when she was human, taking one step would move her dozens of steps forward, the place where she stepped would be shattered, and walls or windows hit by uncontrolled speed would be instantly destroyed.

Rather, it was fortunate that only about one floor had been destroyed so far.

But if left like this, we would have to consider not just one floor, but the collapse of the tower itself, so I let out a deep sigh and left the tent.

“Haa… Let’s go quickly.”

“Yes…”

Yeon-ah followed behind me with an equally tired expression.

We immediately left the dungeon and headed towards the tower where Neon would be causing a ruckus by now.

My unwashed body started to feel a bit uncomfortable.