Chapter 6
The place I entered after pushing through the dense gray mist was a vast, open cavern, incomparable to the narrow, stifling passageway.
Of course, there were no sources of light like torches, so it was just as dark as before.
And right in the middle of that vast space.
“Kirik! Kyaak!”
The goblins had sensed an intruder and were all glaring at me with hostility.
There were five ordinary goblins. At their center stood an evolved specimen, slightly shorter than an adult man but far more muscular than an ordinary goblin. The hobgoblin held a heavy club and glared at me with ominous eyes.
“Kik! Kyaaaak!”
The hobgoblin slammed its club against the ground and let out an irritated shriek. The five goblins around it immediately charged at me.
Judging by how readily they obeyed its commands, that hobgoblin seemed to be the alpha—the leader of this nest.
I didn't panic. Clicking my tongue lightly, I raised the mini flashlight in my left hand, still holding the plastic bag, and shone it at them.
“Kieeek?!”
After living in a dark nest, the goblins' retinas were extremely sensitive to light. The powerful LED beam of modern technology struck them head-on.
Unlike a torch that illuminated the entire space, a flashlight only lit up a limited area, so its beam had the same effect on the goblins as a flashbang.
As the first goblin to charge staggered, clutching its eyes after being suddenly blinded, I poured mana into the tip of my plastic umbrella, hardening it until it was like a steel sword, and cleanly pierced its brow.
Thwuck.
The goblin with a hole in its head lost its strength and fell. Its corpse soon turned to pitch-black ash and began to crumble. I didn't miss my chance and kicked the body as it started collapsing to the ground.
Wham!
“Kikik?!”
The goblin's remains turned to ash in an instant and scattered through the air, forming a thick smokescreen that completely enveloped the face of the second goblin following behind.
With its vision blocked, the flailing goblin was met by my umbrella driving beneath its jaw without the slightest hesitation, cutting off its breath.
“Kyaaaak!”
Seeing two of their kind die in an instant, the remaining three charged at me all at once in a fury.
I stepped back slightly to dodge the fastest one's attack, then reinforced my legs with mana and stomped hard on its head, using it as a stepping stone to leap into the air.
There was a sharp crack as the neck bone of the goblin I stepped on broke.
“Kiek?!”
Taking advantage of my airtime, I mercilessly drove the umbrella straight down into the crown of the fourth goblin, which had reached for me with its arms in midair.
As soon as I landed, I pulled out the umbrella. The last goblin bared its teeth and hurled itself at my legs.
Even after the other goblins had died in vain, it charged calmly without panicking. Pretty commendable.
A brave one like that deserves a gift.
I casually shoved the flashlight into my pocket, then flung the plastic bag still in my left hand straight at the goblin's face—the white bag I'd used for my convenience-store purchases.
Rustle!
Startled by the unfamiliar object suddenly sticking to its face, the goblin reflexively waved both hands around. It probably wasn't used to my gift.
Seizing that brief opening, I swung the umbrella I'd been holding like a rapier in a wide arc like a baseball bat, slicing straight through its throat.
A sharp blade of mana formed at the tip of the umbrella, leaving a chilling slash in its wake.
Swish, rustle.
In an instant, all five goblins turned into pitch-black ash and scattered across the ground.
Hmm. It didn't like my gift? Then I should take it back. With that, I picked up the plastic bag from the floor.
“Grrr….”
Seeing its underlings wiped out in the blink of an eye, the hobgoblin ground its teeth and raised its club. It must have thought it was its turn to step in now that all its minions were dead.
Goblins were so prolific that one theory even held they arose naturally from spores. But with only that hobgoblin left, maintaining the nest wouldn't be easy.
Even if it abducted female animals or human women from elsewhere to increase its numbers, it wouldn't be easy to… Hmm.
Wait, that hobgoblin. Why was it staring right at my face…?
Could it be targeting me? Because I'm a woman? To make me its mate?
What the hell is wrong with it?! Even if I haven't been in a woman's body for very long, it's disgusting to have it look at me that way!!!
As if it didn't care what I thought, the hobgoblin was getting ready to charge at me.
The muscles in its legs bulged explosively as it prepared to leap toward me.
I let out a small sigh and reached into my pocket.
A tiny goblin mana stone I'd picked up while clearing traps and dealing with goblins lying in ambush.
Honestly, a hobgoblin like that wouldn't be hard to take down after exchanging a few blows with my umbrella… but there was no reason to get into a bloody melee and dirty my clothes against something big enough to hurt a person and armed with a weapon.
More than anything, it was unpleasant and a hassle. The hobgoblin's stare was incredibly unpleasant. I wanted to end this quickly and go home.
I curled my middle finger as if I were about to flick someone's forehead, held it in place with my thumb, and wedged the tiny mana stone between them.
Then I mixed the mana from the stone with my own to create a mana bullet.
Bullet loaded. I aimed the prepared projectile at the hobgoblin's savage face, then lightly flicked my middle finger.
Ping!
A sharp crack split the air.
The mana bullet I flicked shot straight forward in an instant, just like a bullet fired from a gun, and blew the hobgoblin's head away without a trace.
Crack!
The enormous headless body staggered for a couple of steps, then collapsed into a massive pile of ash.
“I did use up one mana stone, but… I suppose that's cheaper than the dry-cleaning bill.”
All right. The goblin nest had been cleared. I gathered the hobgoblin's mana stone and the goblins' mana stones from the ground and put them in my pocket. Hmm. The hobgoblin's mana stone was much larger than an ordinary goblin's. If a regular goblin's was about the size of a fingernail, the hobgoblin's was about as long as two finger joints.
It's been a while since I'd seen one of these, too. After I was dropped into the other world, I knew absolutely nothing and struggled just to survive before eventually becoming an adventurer.
Once was more than enough. Definitely.
It happened then.
Vrrrmmm!
As soon as I finished collecting the mana stones, the flow of mana filling the goblin nest began to fluctuate strangely.
Then the entire space rippled as if an earthquake had struck, and everything before my eyes flashed white.
“Uh, huh?! There's someone! Someone else just came out of the Gate!”
I had been in a dark cave only a moment ago, but when I came to my senses, I was outside the Gate.
Police tape had already been set up around the Gate, and the area was a complete madhouse, crowded with police officers, paramedics, and citizens who had gathered.
“Student! Are you all right?! Wait, that's a restricted area—how did you get in there?”
A young police officer hurried over, grabbed my shoulder, and shouted. His face showed equal parts worry and bewilderment.
Just as I was about to fumble through some kind of explanation…
“Officer! Don't yell at that student! They're our savior!”
“That's right! If it weren't for this student, we'd all have died in that monster's den!”
The survivors I'd rescued by marking the exit with glow sticks rushed over from near the paramedics and gathered around me.
“That student saved all of us in that dark place with nothing but an umbrella! They even drove all the monsters away!”
“Wait… With an umbrella…?”
The police officer stared blankly at the five-thousand-won transparent plastic umbrella in my hand. As the survivors passionately defended me and the officer bombarded me with questions, I straightened the mask covering my nose and mouth and answered as earnestly as I could, wearing the most awkward smile imaginable.
Good thing I was wearing a mask. It would've been a hassle if my face were recognized.
“I just happened to find the way to the exit… I was lucky.”
Of course, the police officer looked only half-convinced by my explanation.
“Student, even so, how could you do something so reckless?! From now on, never go rushing into a dangerous place, no matter what. Understand?”
I grumbled inwardly, 'If I hadn't gone in, all those people would've died,' but obediently nodded on the outside.
Well, it was only natural for a police officer to say that. I'd faced beasts, not people, armed with nothing but an umbrella.
“Anyway, I need to verify your identity… Could you give me your name and contact information?”
“Oh, yes. My name is Kim Suyeon, and my number is…”
After handing the officer my contact information more or less perfunctorily, I began to inch backward before I got dragged into any more trouble.
“It wasn't anything special! My bus is about to leave, so I'll be going! Thank you for your hard work!”
Leaving behind the survivors' words of gratitude as they tried to stop me and the police officer's flustered voice, I slipped into the crowd at the terminal and disappeared, half-running away. Just in case, I even used a concealment spell to blur people's awareness of me, so they shouldn't come after me.
After that, everything went smoothly. I quickly bought a ticket at the automated machine, then practically dove onto the bus home. Only after the intercity bus pulled away did I finally let out a sigh of relief.
The very back seat of the intercity bus rattling down the road.
Watching the scenery pass by outside the window, I sank deep into the seat, my body exhausted. Hmm. As expected, this body was out of shape. If I hadn't reinforced it with mana, my muscles would've been aching by now.
When I reached into my pocket, I felt the smooth mana stones I'd taken from the nest.
But then.
“Huh?”
I narrowed my eyes, noticing that something had changed.
The amount of mana gathered inside my body was definitely different than before.
The mana I'd been forcibly squeezing out and gathering with the Vitality Conversion Method had increased.
My innate mana capacity—the total amount I'd been gathering little by little with the Vitality Conversion Method—had clearly increased compared to before I entered the dungeon.
As if I'd cleared a dungeon and gained experience to level up in a game.
“This… It looks like something far more troublesome than I expected is going on.”
Feeling the increased flow of mana inside my body, I pressed a hand to my forehead as an inexplicable headache began to set in.
An ominous feeling came over me that my peaceful retirement—or rather, my peaceful college life in my twenties—was already out of reach.
