In the dim forest.
I took down a three-eyed deer with horns that fired off fire Relics.
A silver-rank, low-tier monster. A Fire Kelrus.
The Fire Kelrus is a monster that charges in while wreathing its horns in flame.
As long as you keep an eye on the horns, it's not that hard to handle.
The annoying ones are the same silver-rank, low-tier Flares. They launch fireballs.
Fire is incredibly powerful. In the worst case, a single hit can kill you.
That hasn't changed, even in this world.
A Relic's [attribute] is more powerful than anything.
Touch fire, and you burn.
Get enveloped in water, and you suffocate.
Get blown away by wind, and you're torn apart.
Get swept along by earth, and you're buried.
Get entangled by green, and you're restrained.
Get hit dead-on by lightning, and you're electrocuted.
Get bathed in light, and you're purified and annihilated.
Sink into darkness, and you're stained black and cursed.
There are other [attributes] too, but even these rough examples are terrifying.
Relics possessed by monsters.
Most of them have high lethality.
Incidentally, Relic [magic] probably doesn't exist.
Fire and thunder are expressed as [attributes]. That's why magic users are called attribute-users.
But you can't say Relic [magic] absolutely doesn't exist.
Nobody knows anything about Relics.
"...Hmm."
Looking at the Fire Kelnos's horn, I gave up on harvesting it.
The horn was pitch-black and had turned to carbon.
It was useless like this.
I'd botched the kill.
"Horns could've been an ingredient for potions."
Which means they'd sell for a good price.
I'd planned to sell them to the witch when I got back, but that was out of the question now.
Depending on how you deal with a monster, you might not be able to carve it up or harvest parts.
I'd heard that before.
"I'm still as green as ever."
I gave a wry laugh and moved on. I checked the map partway through.
The map the witch had given me was hand-drawn.
Probably drawn by the witch herself.
It was full of a handmade charm that, to put it politely, you wouldn't call refined.
But it was really easy to understand.
The witch was the master of this forest. She knew every last corner of it.
Paths and landmarks were drawn up prominently.
That made it easy to read.
"...So this is Mōryu grass..."
You couldn't exactly say the witch had much of an artistic gift.
Maybe that was why. She drew things with exaggerated features.
Pointy things were drawn even pointier, round things rounder.
It was drawn with care and easy enough to understand. Sloppy, though.
So the Mōryu grass was identifiable at a glance.
I could tell what it was—but was this really it?
I wouldn't know without seeing it for real... but this—
looked a lot like a flower I knew from my past life.
Since I hadn't seen one in this world yet, I'd assumed they didn't exist.
The goblin nest was just up ahead.
"..."
I felt gazes and presences from the surrounding area.
I knew exactly what kind of gazes and presences they were.
Goblins.
Monsters ranked below copper tier. Monsters below even the ranking system.
I slowly turned around.
I activated my Relic, Danger Discernment.
Multiple red points. I could see killing intent.
The killing intent pressed against my skin. The moving red dots were enemies.
I drew my knife and manifested my Relic, Banish.
The bushes rustled, and goblins revealed themselves.
Small green bodies.
About the size of a child, their bellies slightly rounded.
A little smaller than me, or about the same.
Emaciated arms and legs. Wretched faces. Purple eyes.
Mouths full of black fangs. Dressed in tattered cloth. Wielding rusted swords and spears.
Ugly little demons. Their body odor was pungent too.
"...I feel like I've seen them somewhere before."
In my past life—no, there were no creatures like this in my past life.
But I had seen something similar somewhere.
Where was it?
I had fought goblins exactly two times before.
The first time was in this forest. The second time was in this forest.
And now, the third time was also in this forest.
Every single time, I felt a sense of déjà vu about the goblins.
The goblins let out low cries and quickly closed in, about four of them.
I Banished them one by one, starting from the closest.
Half a companion's body vanished right in front of their eyes.
Under normal circumstances, they'd be terrified and flee.
But goblins are different.
They kept coming as if nothing had happened.
There was no guarantee they wouldn't meet the same fate.
Did they have no fear at all?
"..."
I Banished the first one's abdomen.
I stabbed the second one's face with my knife, and for the third, I Banished its arm before cutting its neck.
I dispatched all three without breaking a sweat.
"...Is instinct all they have?"
As I cleaned up the remains with Banish, I thought to myself.
Goblins are simple creatures.
If it's a man, they attack, kill, and eat him.
If it's a woman, they assault her and force her to bear children.
That's all there is to it.
That's how they become one of the most numerous species among monsters.
Even a single small goblin nest holds dozens of them.
In the larger ones, they easily number in the hundreds, and in some dungeons, thousands writhe and squirm.
"Like rats. Or cockroaches. Or hungry ghosts."
Ah, that's it. Right, I remembered.
In my past life, there was something called a Hell Pilgrimage temple. A place where you'd travel through the hells of the afterlife and return to the living world.
There was one of those pilgrimage halls at a temple.
In the paintings depicting those hells, the hungry ghosts were drawn there.
Demons that dwell in the Realm of Hungry Ghosts, or the Hungry Ghost World.
They looked just like these goblins.
But that didn't mean there was any real connection between them.
I could come up with all sorts of theories, but they'd all be nothing more than speculation and guesswork.
So I'll end this line of thinking here.
Hungry ghosts.
Now that I'd finally figured out what they resembled, I felt relieved.
"Well, time to head to the cave."
I was getting close to the nest.
The goblins would keep attacking from here on.
I gripped my knife at the ready.
I advanced cautiously, keeping Danger Discernment active the whole time.
I wasn't about to let my guard down just because they were only goblins.
Those things were giant rats and cockroaches.
More like vermin than monsters.
I was as jumpy as a nervous dog, but I killed without mercy.
The moment the witch asked me, I'd already made up my decision.
And that was exactly why the witch had asked me in the first place.
Annihilate the goblins. Destroy the nest. Every last one.
It wasn't impossible. I had the power for it.
But... there was a conflict. This was just my personal opinion, mind you.
Relying too much on Relics wasn't a good thing.
That said, using Relics to build up combat experience was a valid approach.
The cave that served as the nest was almost in sight now.
No doubt a whole swarm of goblins would be milling around the entrance and the surrounding area.
"...Huh?"
But what I saw there was something I hadn't expected.
A mountain of dead goblins — dozens of them.
And the one who had built it was―――a beautiful girl with glowing pink-white hair.
Riv.
Why was she here?