Ch 58 -- Goblin Subjugation Request
I went to the bulletin board to get a request immediately. As the receptionist had explained, rank G requests were quite limited. There were many menial jobs around town listed as requests but there was a note at the bottom of the list... oh, these jobs only earned one point. Another G rank request on the board was gathering medicinal herbs, worth two points. There were virtually no requests to subdue monsters suitable for G rank adventurers, only goblins but they were worth three points.
Uh, that's problematic. Right then, gathering medicinal herbs it is. I can do that. When I put my hand out to take the request for gathering medicinal herbs a thought came from Fer.
"Goblins, it says there."
"What? You can read those letters, Fer?"
"Who do you think I am?" Fer's thought was tinged with annoyance. "I've lived a long time, remember, so learning to read human writing was nothing for me."
Yeah yeah, OK. But anyway goblins are out of the question. I put my hand out again to take the medicinal herbs request and Fer interjected with a thought. "Hey, I said 'Goblins' didn't I?"
"Tough. I'm going to take a request to collect herbs."
"You need points, you said. If you want to do that you should choose goblin subjugation since it's got the highest points." Fer said.
"No, I'll earn points by working hard (safety first is my motto)."
"What're you talking about? We've not reached the ocean yet." Haah? Since when are you wanting to go to the ocean?
"I didn't say anything about it before, that's all." Fer shrugged. "I just decided. I want to eat Kraken and Sea Serpent." What the-? "So you'll have to get up to rank F as quickly as possible."
You might recall me mentioning my horrible experiences with goblins previously, no? Due to a certain someone's actions...
"Hey, Sui? What d'you think we should do? You wanna go fire off some Acid Bullets again?" Fer said telepathically to Sui who stuck her lead out of the bag.
"A fight? Sui wants to go 'pew pew' shooting." Bah, Fer's enlisted Sui on his side.
"No, Sui, we don't wan't to go 'pew pew' shooting, medicinal herbs, we want to go gather some don't we? They'll be made into all sorts of nice medicines." I argued desperately.
"Ehhh." Sui sounded disappointed. "Sui can make medicines to cure painful wounds. Better Sui goes to shoot 'pew pew', fight." Unfortunately that was true, Sui had a restorative medicine creation skill.
"Sui agrees with me, take the goblin subjugation request."
"Goblins? Green goblins? Sui go 'pew pew' at the goblins, finish them off good." S- Sui-chan?
"You're outnumbered." said Fer contentedly. Gaaaah. I give up. I can't say no to cute Sui when she says she wants to go 'pew pew' and finish them off good. I plucked the goblin subjugation request off the board and took it to the receptionist.
* * * * *
The request entailed subjugating goblins which lived in the forest east of the city. The receptionist explained that was the most common place for them to appear. The request was for killing five goblins and the reward was three silver coins and three points. Right, let's go hunt goblins and then return to the city. That's best.
We ran into a group of three goblins as soon as we entered the forest.
"Aruji-, can I go 'pew pew pew'?" Sui asked excitedly.
"All yours." I said.
Pew pew pew. The goblins were hit in the belly by Sui's Acid Bullets and fell to the ground with a thump. The dead goblins had large holes burned in their middles. Awesomely lethal, our Sui is.
"Skillful as ever, Sui. We'll cut off the ears as evidence that we got the goblins, Sui, so remember to hit them in the belly like just now and don't aim for the head."
"I got it-"
I've got to cut off the right ears of the goblins to prove we killed them to claim the reward. Actually I don't really want to do it but I had to, I suppose... I took my knife and started cutting the ears off, dropping them into a sack I had bought on the way out of the city. I felt sick, uuuurp...
I pulled myself together and we moved off again, looking for more goblins in the forest.
"Hey, there's another five goblins over there." Fer said. I followed his gaze.
"Can Sui do it-?"
"Wait, Sui. This guy here will do it this time." Fer ordered. Me? Well, OK. We're in the forest so I'll use Stone Bullet rather than Fireball. Right, concentrate and-
"Stone Bullet!-" Pebbles smacked into the goblins. Two fell down with a thump but the other three weren't hurt too much. They screamed as they ran towards us waving their clubs.
"Stone Bullet! Stone Bullet! Stone Bullet!-" The goblins running towards me fell down. Fuuh, I managed to stop them. I need to fire off three Stone Bullets to do the job it seems or some of them could get away. I should remember that. Safety first.
I bent down and cut off the ears of the dead goblins. With eight ears that's us done.
"We've completed the request, let's go back to the city... Fer?" Fer was sniffing the ground then he looked up, gazing deep into the forest.
"What's up?"
"There's a goblin village up ahead."
"What, a village?"
"Let's go."
"Whaddya mean, 'let's go'. We're not going anywhere except back to the city."
"If you hunt more goblins, you'll get more points won't you? So if we go to the goblin village and kill them all then you'll get lots of points."
Well, I suppose so but goblins and especially goblin villages hold bad memories for me.
"Sui, do you still wanna fight?"
"Uh-huh, Sui wants to fight more, shoot lots more 'pew pew pew'!"
Damn it, this bastard's got Sui on his side again.
"Eh? Sui, we've done enough, we could be back in the city in ten minutes."
"Eh-, don't. Sui wants to shoot more 'pew pew pew', Aruji-"
Sui, when did you become such a battle maniac? You bounce around and jump up and down and are so healing and comfortable and that's enough.
"That's how it is. Give up and get on me." Fer ordered. Geh, I lost again.
"Can I go 'pew pew pew' some more? Yahoo!" Sui bounced around and jumped up and down. Somehow that made me feel happier. Then she jumped up to my chest and trembled. "Thanks so much, Aruji- I love you-"
Ah, Sui-tan is sooo cute. She loves to fight but her true strength is in her cuteness.
"Hoi, hurry up." Yeah yeah. I'm just enjoying being cuddled by Sui. I put her in her bag and then I straddled Fer's back.