“Cleaning up the battlefield” sounded far grander than the work actually was.
The little greenskins owned almost nothing worth taking.
They wore filthy scraps of cloth.
Their weapons were crude lumps of wood and scrap metal, less reliable than the hoes farmers used in the fields.
Even if someone tried to give the things away, nobody would want them.
There was no real loot.
So Xia Nan and the others did only two things.
They cut off the Goblins’ left ears.
Then they found a pit and buried the bodies.
Leaving corpses exposed in the wilderness would only let the smell travel through the forest and attract something worse.
Patter.
Damp earth scattered into the pit.
Slowly, the pile of bodies disappeared beneath the soil.
Elki was among them.
His status as a former party member earned him no special treatment.
The Gnome’s small corpse had been tossed into the same burial pit as the Goblins.
Captain Maji had even “thoughtfully” stripped off Elki’s crude equipment and remaining supplies before burying him, leaving only a thin, patched shirt on the body.
Gagu stood at the edge of the pit.
Most of the blood on his upper body had already been wiped away, though a few wounds were still slowly leaking.
His eyes were slightly red as he watched soil cover Elki’s body.
But there was no need to misunderstand.
That redness was almost certainly not some overwhelming rush of grief over the death of a companion.
More likely, it was simply the lingering effect of whatever had happened to his bloodline during the fight.
At least, that was Xia Nan’s conclusion after spending several days with these people.
Perhaps Gagu did feel some regret over losing a teammate.
Somewhere deep down, there was probably at least a little.
But only a little.
Most of what he felt was likely frustration over how badly the rewards from this mission now compared with the price they had paid.
The relationships between adventurers, especially those in low-level parties where death was common, were far colder and more practical than Xia Nan had imagined.
And Gagu quickly proved him right.
The moment they finished filling the grave, the Half-Orc opened his mouth.
“&#@%$! (Orcish profanity). One of us dies, and we make less than two gold coins? That’s not even enough to buy a donkey. What rotten luck!”
To Xia Nan, the bounty from five Goblins was already an enormous sum.
To Gagu, apparently, it was barely worth mentioning.
The Half-Orc was so irritated that every step landed harder than usual, stamping deep footprints into the meadow.
Xia Nan had assumed that would be the end of his first adventure.
A sudden ambush.
One dead teammate.
A handful of Goblin ears.
Then a miserable walk back to town.
But just as that thought settled in, Maji spoke.
The hunter had remained unusually quiet since the fighting ended, packing their supplies without saying much.
Now, without looking up, he said, “Actually, Goblins are a lot like those greedy Dragons from the old stories.”
Gagu stopped.
Maji continued.
“They like storing whatever they steal inside their lairs.”
For a moment, the entire campsite seemed to go still.
Gagu’s eyes widened.
He spun around.
“You mean…”
“According to the mission information from the Association, this Goblin settlement shouldn’t have more than twenty members.”
Maji finished refilling his quiver, slung it over his back, and rose to his feet.
“The ones we just killed were probably their main fighting force.”
He paused.
“Which means…”
“The lair!”
Gagu’s voice dropped to an excited whisper that somehow sounded even sharper than normal.
“An empty lair!”
Maji nodded calmly.
Too calmly.
The excitement gleaming in his eyes gave him away.
A Goblin lair that was probably undefended.
A low-level adventuring party that had kept most of its fighting strength.
There was risk.
Of course there was.
But compared with what they might find inside?
That little bit of risk hardly seemed worth mentioning.
Besides, if an adventurer refused to take even that much of a chance, they might as well go home and farm.
Greed did wonders for efficiency.
Within moments, Gagu and Maji were already discussing everything from the likely location of the Goblin lair to what preparations they should make before entering.
Before long, they had even reached the topic of how the spoils should be divided.
Xia Nan stayed out of the discussion.
He had only just transmigrated to this world.
He knew very little about Goblin habits.
He knew even less about judging situations like this in the wilderness.
His instincts told him that turning around and going back to town would be safer.
But Maji and Gagu were not being completely unreasonable either.
More importantly, refusing would not solve his problem.
If they went searching for the lair and Xia Nan chose not to follow, he would have only two options.
Stay here alone and wait.
Or return to the nearest town alone.
Neither sounded particularly appealing.
This was Misty Forest.
A place filled with monsters.
Traveling alone here was probably more dangerous than following the other two.
So he might as well go with them.
If things went well, he might even earn a few extra gold coins.
For adventurers, money was an extraordinarily effective motivator.
Faced with the possibility of treasure, the ragtag party displayed a level of enthusiasm Xia Nan had yet to see from them.
In barely a dozen minutes, Gagu and Maji had put together a plan.
It was crude.
Not especially clever.
But it was a plan.
They would rest for the night, recover their strength, and set out at first light to search for the Goblin lair.
…
…
The campfire flickered softly.
From the crude sleeping bag beside Xia Nan came the rise and fall of heavy snoring, mixing with the chirping of unknown insects deep in the forest.
Warm firelight washed across Xia Nan’s face, tinting his features orange-red.
The ragtag party had already moved to a different location and made camp again.
Maji had set traps around the perimeter just as before.
However, considering that Elki was currently buried underground, Xia Nan had limited faith in the hunter’s traps.
So when his turn for night watch came, he stayed especially alert.
He even moved his seat farther toward the center of the camp.
That way, if something managed to slip past the traps, he would at least have enough time to react.
The night was quiet.
Only now did Xia Nan finally have a stretch of time to himself, without anyone paying attention.
He rested the one-handed sword across his knees.
A strip of gauze sat in his right hand, making it look as though he were carefully maintaining the blade.
But Xia Nan was not really looking at the sword.
He was looking at himself.
More precisely, at his reflection in the blade.
One second.
Two seconds…
Xia Nan slowly focused.
Then, one line at a time, translucent block-shaped text appeared before his eyes.
…
[Name]: Xia Nan
[Attributes]:
Strength: 5 (muscular strength, athletic training, and the body’s physical potential)
Agility: 5 (reaction speed, balance, and nimbleness)
Constitution: 5 (endurance and vitality)
Intelligence: 5 (memory, logic, and reasoning ability)
Perception: 5 (observation and insight, as well as harmony with the surrounding environment)
Charisma: 5 (personality and presence)
[Skills]:
Spinning Slash Lv. 4 (99/100)
…
[Just as I thought!]
Xia Nan’s pulse quickened.
Ever since [Proficiency +1] had flashed before his eyes during the fight with the Goblins, the possibility had been nagging at him.
Now he had finally tested it.
And sure enough…
[So it’s not just equipment stats. I can use my reflection to see my own attributes too!]