Asuna noticed Lucian’s gaze.
Following it, she immediately understood.
Lucian moved at the same moment.
He raised a hand, conjuring a teal Magic Circle, and launched a wind blade.
The wind blade tore through the bushes in its path, immediately alerting the monsters.
Beside him, surprise flashed through Asuna’s eyes at the sight of his magic.
Lucian had already begun mastering magic?
And wind magic, at that.
Was he a wind-element mage?
Curiosity stirred in Asuna, but it didn’t slow her down.
She charged first, with Lucian close behind.
The situation was just as he’d suspected: there was more than one monster.
The instant Lucian’s spell struck, the creatures hiding in the bushes grew restless.
“Gaaah!”
The monsters poked their heads out and rolled in every direction to evade the wind blade.
The one closest to it failed to dodge in time and took the attack head-on.
A bone-deep wound opened across its body.
Blood sprayed everywhere, and the intense pain made it roar.
As Lucian and Asuna rushed in, they got a clear look at the creatures and their numbers.
Short bodies, green skin, pointed mouths, and monkey-like faces—these were unmistakably Goblins.
The moment Asuna recognized them, she bristled, and her sword accelerated sharply.
Any woman would feel a natural revulsion toward Goblins.
The instant Asuna saw what they were, only one thought remained in her mind: kill them!
She reached the Goblin wounded by Lucian’s spell first and took off its head with a single stroke.
Lucian had no intention of falling behind.
He rushed another Goblin and swept his saber upward—but the creature didn’t go flying as he’d imagined.
Instead, the sharp point of his saber ripped through its stomach and jaw.
The Goblin collapsed with a miserable scream.
Lucian stared for a moment.
The weapon was even more terrifyingly sharp than he’d imagined.
He hadn’t expected a single exchange to leave the Goblin in such a state.
Despite his astonishment, Lucian moved again and began rapidly harvesting the Goblins’ lives.
The creatures had been caught off guard at first, but once Lucian and Asuna killed the first of them, their ferocity erupted in full.
They quickly recovered and launched a counterattack.
These Goblins knew no magic; all they could do was grab stones from the ground and hurl them.
Lucian swung his saber, splitting the incoming stones in two, then charged alongside Asuna and began slaughtering the Goblins.
In less than a minute, the two of them had finished off every last one.
Looking over the dead Goblins, Asuna scanned the surrounding area for anything else that might be hiding nearby.
Lucian’s attention fell on her weapon: a slender, Western-style rapier.
Despite killing several Goblins, not a single drop of blood stained its blade.
It was clearly an extremely expensive weapon.
At the same time, Lucian gained a deeper understanding of the saber in his own hands.
His weapon was worth even more than he’d imagined.
Otherwise, it couldn’t possibly be this sharp.
“Looks like that was all of them.” Asuna surveyed the area once more.
Finding no other movement, she turned to Lucian.
He nodded, looked down at the Goblin corpses, and brought his saber down on one of their heads without hesitation.
Clack!
With a single cut and a gentle twist, he split the skull open, then used the tip of his saber to flick out a stone from inside.
It was the magic stone left behind by the monster, the most valuable part of the entire Goblin.
As for the rest of the body, it would all be turned into fertilizer.
Someone would naturally come to clean it up later.
After what had happened here, the patrol team would probably comb through the entire area before long.
Asuna was speechless as she watched Lucian work, but she said nothing.
She would probably have to deal with things like this herself in the future.
After all, school had taught them how to handle monsters since middle school, including exactly where to find their magic stones.
Lucian quickly extracted the stones from the remaining Goblins, then looked at Asuna.
“Let’s split them fifty-fifty.”
Asuna looked at the magic stones in his hand, each about the size of an infant’s finger, and shook her head.
“No need, Lucian.
You can keep them.”
The blood and tofu-like matter smeared across the stones made her want them even less.
She had only just taken a bath!
“You don’t want them?
Then I won’t stand on ceremony.” Lucian paused for a moment, then promptly accepted them all.
The magic stones could be sold for a decent amount, but more than that, Lucian wanted to use them to set up a Magic Circle like the one at school.
If he had to buy everything with his own money, he would probably go bankrupt on the spot.
Now that he had these stones, setting it up would be simple.
“Lucian, are you planning to sell those magic stones?” Asuna suddenly asked, thinking of his circumstances.
“No.
I’m going to set up a Magic Circle in my room like the one on the school’s third floor, where we had class this morning.” Lucian made no attempt to hide his plan.
Asuna’s eyes lit up.
She looked at him in surprise.
“You’ve already mastered that support Magic Circle?
You can set it up yourself?”
It was genuinely astonishing.
If he could install one in his own home, it would be an enormous help.
“Yeah.
It’s pretty simple, but getting the materials is a pain.
It requires magic stones, and these should be enough for now.”
Generally speaking, the higher the quality of the magic stones, the stronger the effect.
But Lucian was broke and couldn’t afford better ones.
The Goblin stones in his hand would do for the moment; he could worry about upgrading later.
After thinking for a moment, Asuna asked, “Lucian, would you be interested in earning some extra money?”
Lucian’s interest was instantly piqued.
He looked up at her.
“Tell me more.
I’m flat broke right now, so if there’s money to be made, Boss, don’t forget to bring me along!”