Chapter 29: Chapter 22.3: Julius, Certified Lady Killer and Goblin Slayer (Part III)

Echoes of Fire and Shadows

Chapter 22: Julius, Certified Lady Killer and Goblin Slayer (Part III)

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I opened my eyes only to find myself below the familiar cover of our wagon. My bag was hurting due to the vibrations made by the moving wagon, which was a clear sign that we were still on the road.

I was expecting to be immediately hugged once or twice after waking up by Liliana, Luna, or even Mia as well, however, when I sluggishly managed to raise my upper body, I noticed that the three girls were sleeping peacefully. Liliana was lying on the ground near me while Luna and Mia seemingly fell asleep reading a book, with Luna resting her head on Mia’s shoulder while drooling a bit…

(Cute… I should probably take a picture of this… Now, where’s my phone…?) While still half-asleep, I started rummaging in my pocket for my smartphone as I looked at the adorable scene in front of me, however, I couldn’t find it anywhere…

Ah… Right… I don't have one of those anymore… That is extremely disappointing…

After a few moments of lamenting myself over the fact of not having a phone to record this rare moment, I immediately started stretching…

“Oww… I think I will have to develop and install an actual suspension on this thing…” I muttered as I massaged my pained back.

“A suspension? What is that?” My mother spoke to me from the driver's seat. Judging by her voice, she sounded a little tired. “Why don’t you come here and give your old mother some company while you explain that to me?” She then spoke to me with increasing excitement.

“Okay.” I continued to massage my back as I sloppily made my way to the driver’s seat, avoiding all the stuff we were bringing with us back home.

As I poked my head outside the covers of our wagon, I was able to see the infinite sea of oak trees that made the Great Forest of Falgren. We were already near our home…

We would soon leave behind the grasslands to enter the forest once we found the path my father carved when my family came here for the first time.

“Did you sleep well? You were snoring pretty loudly, you know? Back at your Auntie's you also snored pretty loudly too.” My mother took a quick look at me and showed me a teasing smile before she continued looking at the road before us.

“I did!?” I was really mortified to hear that…

Why has no one ever told me that I snore!? That’s so embarrassing!

“Hehehe! I’m just messing with you! You slept peacefully for most of the journey. I actually had to take a few peeks inside every now and then just to make sure we hadn’t actually left you behind by accident since you were so quiet.” My mother giggled while she patted my head in a loving manner as she held the reins in her other hand.

“Jeez… You really scared me there…” I immediately let out a sigh of relief.

I think I can now see where Liliana got her flair for teasing… It really is true what they say that the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.

“I don’t think it would have been embarrassing if you snorted a little… I think it would have been really cute instead, you know?” My mom said happily as she turned my hair into a mess due to how vigorously she was ruffling it… “Then, what are you standing there for? You should know that it is not good to keep a girl waiting.” She quickly smiled at me before getting her eyes on the road again.

I nodded in agreement as I set aside the cover of the wagon in order to take a seat beside her. I had to be really careful while moving to the front of the wagon since it wouldn’t be funny if I suddenly fell off, even if we are traveling at a slow pace…

Though, I guess it wouldn’t really matter since mom could patch me up using her healing magic… Hmmm… It wouldn’t hurt to learn how to use it as well… I hope she teaches me about it soon.

“If you say that it just makes it more embarrassing, Mom…” I averted my gaze due to her teasing…

My face was then hit by a gentle breeze as I looked at the endless grasslands to the side of our carriage. There were no other people or animals around, just us…

“It was just some light teasing, sweetie.” My mom said happily. “Truthfully, I couldn’t resist since I was bored out of my mind… You just gave me the opportunity on a silver platter.” For a brief moment, my mother showed me her teasing smile yet again.

“Fair enough… I kinda walked into that one…” I smiled wryly.

“So? Did you have any pleasant dreams you would like to talk with me about? Or would you rather hear a story? I was about to doze off thanks to my boredom…” My mother made a genuinely concerning confession…

Pleasant huh… The first thing that came to my mind when I heard that word was Lia, on the verge of tears while she was talking about Basalto, the original Demon King/God of Magic.

While I’m glad that my questions were answered and that I was able to learn about my ancestors, my homeland, and my last name, I probably wouldn’t use the word 'pleasant' to describe my dream due to the story of my ancestor and how Lia felt about it…

I think I was also able to get closer to Lia as well… Yet, I can only think of that meeting as something bittersweet…

“Do you want me to take the reins… You must be tired, Mom.” I spoke to my mom with concern.

“I don’t think we ever taught you how to drive… Forget about that, there’s something more important that I would like you to tell me…” My mother suddenly looked at me with suspicion. “Why did you ignore my question about your dream? Did you have a nightmare? Did you meet Lady Lia again?” She was now looking at me with a frown…

My mother is frighteningly sharp for these kinds of things… Hahaha…

“Yeah… I had another meeting with Lady Lia.” I confirmed her suspicions. “It was nothing bad, really. She just told me a story and some concerning things about my homeland and my biological mother.” I couldn’t help but feel awkward under the gaze of my adoptive mother…

“Is that so…?” My mother’s expression suddenly became one of concern. “Is she alright?” She asked with a very difficult-to-read expression on her face.

I was a little taken aback that she asked about my bio mom’s wellbeing, but I quickly shook off that feeling and decided to tell her.

“Lia told me that she was not eating much, that she was not sleeping well, and that she is overworking herself so I can return home one day…” I said with worry. “I sent her a message with Lady Lia, so I’m hoping she will at least listen to me and rest, but I can’t help but feel worried…” I looked towards the road in a dejected manner.

For a moment, an awkward atmosphere took over… The two of us were silent due to the heavy topic I had just brought up.

After taking a moment to think of what to say, my mother broke the silence between us.

“I can understand why she is doing something like that. After all, a mother’s love for her children knows no limits…” She nodded as if she clearly understood my biological mother’s actions. “Julius, if I was in the same situation as her, there’s no doubt in my heart that I would do just the same for you and for the twins.” My mother suddenly grabbed one of my hands and held it tightly. all the while showing me the warmest and most compassionate smile I had ever seen.

I am aware that she would also do that for me, after all that’s the kind of person my adoptive mother is…

“Julius, you have a kind heart, you know that?” She suddenly complimented me. “Even while retaining so little memories of her that she might as well be a stranger, you still worry about your real mother deeply.” My mother simply kept smiling at me.

As I silently looked at her while she smiled, we finally left the grasslands and entered the forest through the path made by my adoptive father… The path was very rough, which meant that the wagon was going to start shaking much more than before…

“She’ll listen to you, I’m sure of it. If I was in her place, the last thing I would want to do is make you worry when you’re away in a far and distant land.” My adoptive mother’s words were extremely reassuring. “I’m certain that after receiving your message and knowing that you’re safe, your mother will be able to sleep at night with ease.” Her warm smile and kind words genuinely moved me.

After hearing all my adoptive mother had to say, I felt like a heavyweight had been lifted from my shoulders…

Truly, I have been blessed to have met this woman and her family… Even if I survived those goblins when I first came to this world, it is clear to me that I wouldn’t have made it this far without them.

“Thank you, Mom… That really makes me feel better.” I smiled back at her, feeling genuinely good thanks to this short comforting talk. “Though… I can’t approve of you calling her my ‘real mother’ since both of you are my mothers. None of you are the real one nor the fake one.” My smile only got wider as I stated my disapproval.

“That would be troublesome… What are you gonna call us when the two of us are in the same room with you?” My mom’s warm smile immediately turned into a teasing one. She was clearly overjoyed by what I had just said.

“I’ll simply call you Mom and I'll call her Mother. That should do it, right?” I replied while looking at the road ahead of us.

“Isn’t that a bit cold...? Perhaps she would prefer that you called her Mommy instead.” My mom seemed to feel really playful after comforting me.

“That’s… We’ll see when the time comes…” I said with a little bit of embarrassment on the outside. Despite that, however, I was actually screaming internally…

Due to the sexual connotations that both the internet and my former girlfriend, Claire have given to that word, I don’t think I’ll ever refer to both of my mothers with that word… There’s also the fact that I am a twenty-year-old guy inside the body of a seven-year-old, which makes that even more uncomfortable…

Just the mere thought of it makes me deeply ashamed… I would rather swallow an entire box full of rusty nails before referring to my mothers like that...

“I’ll be looking forward to meeting her someday, after all, there’s a lot I need to talk to her about.” My mom simply kept her eyes on the road after noticing my awkwardness. The last words she used were a bit menacing as well as concerning…

Hopefully, when the day comes they will get along… I can only pray for that to be the case…

As I feared the day where both of my mothers would meet each other, we reached a large tunnel made with the branches of the trees that were on each side of the narrow rudimentary dirt road made by my father.

It was a sign that my first trip in this world would finally come to an end.

The two of us simply observed the wonderful sight in silence while the horses pulled the heavy wagon towards our home. My mom held my hand the entire time while giggling every now and then.

After thirty minutes of travel through the awe-inspiring tunnel of trees and branches, we were finally home.

“Home sweet home.” My mom spoke with relief as we saw our house in the distance.

However, that relief wouldn’t last for long…

“Oh…” My mom stopped the carriage once she realized what was going on.

We were barely a hundred meters away from our house… From here, I could see a large group of what seemed to be small humanoids with green skin… The creatures that almost got me reincarnated for the third time… Goblins.

Despite the distance between our wagon and the house, I was able to notice that the door was open and that those little imps were running in and out of our house, messing up with our things… It was also due to the distance that they didn’t hear our horses, so they were seemingly unaware of our presence.

“Oh, shit…” My mom suddenly cursed despite knowing I was right by her side. Something which was really out of character for her.

One, two… twenty… thirty… fifty… There were fifty of those wild creatures in the vicinity of our house… An entire tribe of the things that once almost ended my life was destroying my home… Throwing rocks and their own shit at our windows and walls while laughing as well trying to kick the door down for their own amusement…

Because of the actions of those hideous monsters, I started seeing red… I was clenching my fists while looking at what the creatures were doing to our house. That sight made me feel an extreme unyielding rage...

“You sons of a green whore… Who the fuck gave you the right to do that!? I’m gonna fucking impale you!” In my rage, I started whispering insults as I tried to get off the wagon…

It was time to do some pest control…

As I did that, my mom quickly grabbed my hand in order to stop me while she looked at me with what seemed to be a mixture of worry and shock.

“Julius, what do you think you’re doing? It is too dangerous for you to go there!” My mother pulled me back towards her. “For now, let’s just stay here and wait for your father, then we adults will see how to handle this situation.” After getting over the initial shock of seeing her home being vandalized by the monsters, my mom managed to calm herself down and tried to take the most logical approach.

“Ah, did I just…?” Thanks to my mother’s actions, I quickly snapped out of the rage that was consuming me.

“Sigh… Don’t worry me like that, you almost gave your own mother a heart attack…”  My mother let out an incredibly heavy sigh. "To think that out of everything I could possibly forget about, I forgot about setting up a barrier… For fuck’s sake! Fucking dumbass!" My mother shook her head with disappointment towards herself as she kept cursing without any care for my ‘innocence’...

My mother was still holding my hand very tightly, seemingly wanting to prevent me from trying to run there again…

"Tsk… If only you kids were in one of the other wagons… I could take care of those goblins on my own without having to worry about your safety…" My mother muttered to herself after clicking her tongue.

I was filled with shame and guilt when I realized how differently the two of us reacted… Her first thought was about us, the children that were accompanying her, while mine was to jump in there and murder those creatures without caring about anything else...

This is no good… I can't just allow myself to get taken over by anger and jump into danger just like that…

Sigh... Ever since I reincarnated my emotions have been all over the place… This is, of course, the fault of my childish body and its annoying hormones… But I can't just put all of the blame into those hormones, I am to blame as well for letting my emotions take control of me…

I can't allow this to happen again, especially with something as dangerous as anger.

I closed my eyes and took deep breaths in order to fully calm myself down so I could act in a rational manner.

After a full minute or two of me using that simple breathing exercise, I felt ready to deal with this situation.

The moment I opened my eyes, I immediately focused on our house…

But this time, while I could feel the anger building up once again deep inside of me, I didn't let it get the better of me this time...

Any damage to the house could be repaired as long as it is still standing. But I won't let those little beings do as they please.

Alright… I'm ready.

"Mom, could I try to deal with them?" I asked my mother with a determined expression.

"Absolutely fucking not!" She quickly denied my request in quite a spectacular manner… "I know what you're thinking, but just because you beat those adventurers doesn't mean I will let you foolishly charge against an entire tribe of goblins. We'll wait for your father and then we'll see what we can do from there!" Naturally, I was scolded by my mom for what I wanted to do…

At that moment, a flashback crossed my mind… The flashback was about a golden swarm of countless angels, and the faces of both my biological mother and Lia…

Due to that flashback, I simply couldn't accept my mom's answer. After all, if I couldn't deal with a bunch of goblins, what could I possibly do to help Lia and my mother against those angels?

Because of that question, I formulated a plan to change her mind.

"Mom… I need to do this." My determination only became even more firm. "I can't stand remembering how scared I was when Dad found me in the forest... I was hopeless back then, but now that I have the power to defend myself, am I supposed to sit here and watch how they plunder and destroy the home you and dad worked so hard to build? I can’t do that. I simply cannot." I didn't falter for even a single moment.

“Julius, you…” My mother was completely caught off guard by my refusal. She simply stared at me in a dumbfounded state. She was clearly trying to quickly formulate a counterargument in her head in order to make me stay quiet.

However, I was not going to even give her a chance to make use of that counterargument.

"If you don't think I can deal with them with a sword in close quarters just yet, I'll deal with them with magic." I created a small fireball on top of one of my fingers as I smiled at her. "I'm confident that I have engraved each and every single one of your and dad's lessons on my mind. If you still don't think I can deal with this on my own, then just support me from here while protecting the wagon." I looked at her with an unwavering smile and newly found courage.

There was another solution that had come to my mind, but I simply didn’t mention it to her as I felt that I needed to take care of this on my own. 

We could simply use a barrier to protect the wagon in case there are more goblins around while we take care of the group assaulting our home. But like I just said, I didn’t mention this to her because I want to be the one to take care of this.

This situation is clearly my first step towards my goals. Those adventurers back in Norvek were nothing but a small test… This is the real deal. Killing monsters is probably the most efficient way to level up if the Status System works like in most RPGs, so if I want to grow and level up, I need to get used to this.

But there’s not only that! Monsters are a natural danger in this world. What can I expect to do against Agmos, his allies, or any angels if I can’t even deal with Goblins, who are probably the weakest monsters in this world!

At this moment, with my mind already being set on the task of taking care of this situation and with a resolute smile I kept looking at my mother, waiting for her answer.

“Julius…” She looked at me back, her eyes showing a small glimpse of her worry and hesitation “You don’t have to act an adult… I know you used to be one, but right now, you’re a child once again. You could simply rely on us, your parents, and enjoy your childhood… There’s no need for you to experience fighting for your life against a monster at this age…” She suddenly caressed my cheek., before pulling me into a warm and tight hug…

Coming from my Mom, another refusal was to be expected… She’s a good person and a good mother. However, I was not expecting what she was going to say next…

“Sigh… I know that nothing I say will change your mind. You can be surprisingly stubborn at times… Just like that time when you did everything you could to try and hit Tiria for an entire afternoon when she was training you with Fred.” She pressed her forehead against my own as she started to speak in a somewhat nostalgic tone.

“And I would have managed to do so if Auntie wasn’t so stupidly overpowered…” I muttered with a mix of embarrassment and annoyance.

I haven’t mentioned that part of my training before, since… I didn’t want to reveal the intimate relationship I developed with the floor thanks to my Auntie… She’s stupidly fast…

“Right.” My mother started teasing me once again despite the seriousness of this situation... “You really remind me of myself when I was a child your age… I’m now even starting to wonder if this is how my teacher felt when she was raising me… Well, I guess that’s a story I’ll have to tell you another time all things considered.” My Mom stopped hugging and simply showed the warmest of smiles.

“Does this mean that you’ll let me go?” I asked her with a bit of confusion about her sudden acceptance.

“Yes. But I have two conditions, though.” She then looked back at the house. “The first one is that you cannot use any spell that could destroy our house and the second is that I want you to immediately run back here if there are more goblins than you can handle or you feel like your life is in great danger... You and I will have a reeeeeally long talk if you fail to complete these conditions, especially the second.” She looked at me and smiled yet again. Though this particular smile of hers didn’t reach her eyes and it was quite terrifying…

Yeah, I’m starting to think that my mother can be quite scary when she’s up for it… I definitely don’t want to try my luck in experiencing that long talk with her…

“That’s fine by me…” I nodded vigorously as I was getting off the wagon, trying to escape before she changed her mind. “Well then, I’m off to save the day, Mom.” I smiled at her with the same confidence I had before her sudden acceptance.

“You’ve got this!” My mom immediately gave me the thumbs up and encouraged me. “Ah! But try not to ruin your new clothes, okay? Goblin blood is stupidly difficult to wash off from fabrics… The smell also just seems to attach to you for weeks if you don’t take a shower afterward! And how could I forget about the putrid smell of their organs! It smells like someone raised the dead body of a decomposing chicken with necromancy and then made a soup out of said corpse! It is so horrible! But let’s not forget about their…-” My mom seemed to have more warnings in her mind, but I simply decided to not listen to them…

You are reading story Echoes of Fire and Shadows at novel35.com

“I’m off then!” I ran away from her and the wagon before she could finish for the sake of my own mental health.

Mental note: I should definitely not make the goblins blow up like balloons like I was thinking of doing…

After gaining sufficient distance from my mother and her Did-You-Know facts about goblins, and getting closer to our home, I prepared myself for battle. The only weapons I had with me were my dagger, my imagination, and my magic.

“Let’s see… Since destroying the house is obviously out of the question, I guess that using fire magic is strictly forbidden…” I closed my eyes and tried to come up with something else.

If I learned something from RPGs, is that the most efficient way to deal with large numbers of enemies is to use AOE (Area Of Effect) types of attacks. Fire spells would be the most obvious and the quickest solution to this situation.

After all, what’s a better solution than burning your problems away?

“Wait… There’s has been a little something I have been wanting to try… Why not try it now? I’ll leave the AOE for later.” I asked that question to myself as I made a minuscule ball of light in front of me.

As I looked at the minuscule ball of white light which was floating in the palm of my hand, I wondered if this really would work…

This cute ball of light is a [Grade 1] spell called [Light]. It barely uses any mana and its only purpose is to produce a small ball of light to illuminate your room when you want to read at night and it doesn’t have any attack power to speak of. This is the most basic spell a magician could learn.

“If my theory is correct, this should make this adorable thing into a very powerful attack.” I took a deep breath and prepared to put my theory to the test.

I focused on the ball of light and gave it a new shape… The light that I had created through magic had the shape of a bullet. It barely reached 5mm in length.

“Good. Next should be…” I grinned as soon as I saw the former ball had followed my command.

I then made the bullet of light rotate in place very slowly, progressively increasing over and over its rotational speed until it was rotating so quickly that it was producing a very strange visual effect that I couldn’t quite describe.

Now, there was only one thing left to do…

I gathered my mana in my eyes and focused on searching for a suitable target amongst the crowd of goblins that were assaulting our empty home.

It didn’t take long enough for me to find one… Most of the goblins were dressed with what seemed to be torn fabrics that were used as loincloths. My target, however, was dressed quite ostentatiously if it can be called like that. The goblin was wearing a loincloth like the rest of the tribe, but it was also wearing what could be considered a helmet or a crown made out of the skull of what seems to be a wolf. The goblin was also armed with a rusty sword.

That goblin must be the chief of this tribe of goblins, which means he has to be my primary target.

“No hesitation.” I whispered to myself, just in case any doubts appeared in my mind. “Fire!” I shouted my orders to the bullet even though the mere thought would have sufficed.

As soon as I said that, the bullet was shot and it started traveling at an incredible speed, leaving a small trail of faint light behind.

However, when the bullet supposedly reached its target and pierced its head, absolutely nothing happened. The goblin was still standing even after the faint trail left behind by the bullet of light passed through the group of goblins.

“Umm… Did I just fail?” I tilted my head with confusion. “Oh well, what can you expect from something I tried for the first time.” I shrugged in a nonchalant manner in order to hide my disappointment.

I guess I should have expected as much from a [Grade 1] spell… It didn’t help to try though, maybe there’s a way to improve this… If only I knew where I went wrong…

Fortunately for me, I would soon realize that my spell had been nothing but a success.

“Uryarara!” I heard a loud inhuman screech coming directly from the immediate area of my house.

I immediately looked at the goblin I had chosen as my target. It was lying on the ground while the other goblins panicked.

“Gigigigi!”

“Gyagyuga!”

All the goblins immediately started shrieking in a panic due to the sudden death of their leader. I did not know if they were actually communicating or if they were just screams of panic, however, I didn’t care in the slightest.

“Awesome… Maybe casting a few more should do the trick.” I smiled as I started preparing five identical copies of [Light] and going through the same processes I had gone through with the first one. “I really need to pay attention this time.” I muttered to myself as I had completely forgotten about the first monster I killed.

This spell is the result of a conversation I had with my best friend Chris a few months before I died. 

You see… Chris hates firearms with a burning passion and has even gone to a few rallies against them. For someone so against them, he really enjoys researching them… If you ask him about a certain model of a gun, he will tell you all the exact details of what that gun can do. That particular day he started telling me about why do bullets spin.

I’m glad that I paid attention to him while he was talking… Anyway, when I remembered that conversation a few days ago, I thought to myself: ‘Maybe I could make something similar to an actual bullet with magic.’

I never found the time to try this idea while we were in Norvek, so here we are! 

I definitely need to try this with the other Five Primordial Elements though…

After all of the five bullets of light had been spinning for a while, I took aim and shot every single bullet in quick succession one after the other, leaving trails faint light of in their path…

The result was mostly the same as with the goblin with skull crown, the goblins that had become my target stayed still for a few moments before they suddenly fell to the ground and supposedly died.

I couldn’t see the extent of their wounds since I was pretty far from them, but it was clear that it was something that would probably make me throw up if all of my mom’s did-you-know facts from before were correct…

“Must have hit them in the heart or something… Those hunting lessons with Auntie really paid off.” I said as I rubbed my chin while looking at the panicked goblins watching their comrades dying.

Unfortunately, the time for me to marvel over the creation of my first spell had come to an end as the goblins had seen me and they were understandably pissed at the loss of their companions.

“Guryagugi!”

“Gyaragyagia!”

All the forty-five remaining goblins immediately rushed at me, with their crude weapons in hand… No… There were even more coming out of the house… At least sixty-one goblins were after my head after I had killed their leader.

“Yeah, I don’t think I can deal with that using the bullets… Let’s go with a different approach…” I said with a little bit of panic as I was seeing the small horde of green humanoids coming to claim my life.

I quickly placed my hands on the ground and started moving my mana towards the soil… I also created a [Barrier] in front of myself in case any of the goblins tried to throw their weapons at me…

As the thunderous noise produced by the large group of goblins coming straight towards me reached my ears, I put my everything into one final card… An AOE spell that would end every single one of the goblins for good.

Wait for it…

Wait for it…

Just a little bit more…

Impatience means doom, you just need to wait a tiny bit longer…

There! It is time!

When the goblins were already a few meters shy of me, where I could actually see all of their hideousness and the monster-like characteristics of the green humanoids. I grinned as one of the goblins was about to try to hit my [Barrier] with its club, however, he wouldn’t even manage to do so.

An enormous hole of 15 meters in diameter and a depth of 25 meters opened before the very feet of those goblins. I was able to get every single goblin to fall into that hole.

And I was able to do that for almost three-quarters of my mana… 

“Ugh… I think I overdid it…” I said as I started feeling dizzy and quite nauseous due to being low on mana… “I still need to finish this.” I said as tried to shake away my dizziness while I got closer to the hole I had just made.

There, I could see dozens of goblins, all contained in a very narrow cave at the bottom of the pit I had just made. I was certain that a few of them must have died because of the fall and some more due to the weight of their companions.

“Sheesh… I can’t believe [Chasm] is actually a [Grade 1] spell… That part of my ancestor that manages magic really needs to balance this…” I said made an awkward joke that probably no one besides Lia and I would get…

Yeah, I’ll just get this over with…

There are plenty of ways to do so. Throwing a fireball in the hole, making a big rock with magic and crushing them, closing the hole and making them suffocate, using water magic to drown them, or even freezing them to death.

…

…

...

Damn… I think I’m might need to talk to a therapist after this…

I couldn’t decide on a method to exterminate the monsters that were trapped bottom of the pit. I had fallen deep into thought trying to decide the quickest and most effective manner to do it with what little mana I had left.

This, however, proved to be an almost fatal mistake…

“Gyaagagagaaha!” A lone goblin shrieked as it ambush me from behind.

I quickly turned around only to see that the goblin was already in a position to stab me in the heart.

But in spite of that, I didn’t feel threatened at all nor did I fear for my life.

Because of the harsh training with my dad, I had endured for the last few weeks, I  instinctively reached for my dagger and unsheathed it as fast as I could.

“Gyahaha!” As if it was laughing at my defeat or my attempt of fighting back, the goblin quickly launched its attack with the rusty sword I had seen before in the hands of the other goblin.

However, the attack of the goblin survivor would never reach me. As the rusty sword approached my vital areas, I protected myself with a small [Barrier] that barely appeared in time to deflect the attack of the monster.

“Ugyagaaa!?” The monster frowned and actually looked dumbfounded that his attack had missed.

I obviously wasn’t going to let this opportunity slip through my fingers.

“Sorry, nothing personal, but I think I have a grudge against your kind… Who am I kidding? This is totally personal, you bastard!” I shouted as I undid my barrier and thrust my dagger towards its neck.

The dagger got immediately stuck in its throat after my unavoidable attack landed. This, unfortunately, caused another issue… I was completely covered in blood, as the goblin in front of me was bleeding like a fountain…

“Dammit, my new clothes!” I immediately got away from the dying goblin as it was throwing up blood and having seizures. My clothes had been smeared with the blood of the goblin I had just tried to kill. “God! It smells so awful! Eww!” I covered my nose and gagged as I was repulsed by the smell of the blood.

I couldn’t help but grow increasingly angry at the survivor goblin who was now at the death’s door… It was due to that very same anger that I was able to keep my lunch inside my stomach…

“That’s it… No more rational solutions…” I looked at the goblin with anger as I walked towards it and retrieved my dagger. This made the fountain of blood of a goblin start launching more blood everywhere…

“Why the fuck does this thing have so much blood in it!? When does this end!?” I yelled with impatience as I protected my clothes from further blood-smearing while using a [Barrier].

I was not going to wait to find out the answer to those questions… With my [Barrier] as protection, I pushed the dying goblin towards the pit with its brethren.

“That’s it, I’m freezing you all to death as a special fuck you…” I said to the group of soon-to-be frozen goblins as I no longer had any patience.

I started concentrating and moving my mana towards my arms, and then towards the air above the pit of goblins…

Several [Waterballs] appeared in the middle of the air above the hole. A few moments after they appeared, a sudden downpour that wasn’t predicted in today’s weather forecast befell on the poor creatures…

“Gyaaaa!”

“Gugeage!” 

“Gigiiiaa!”

“Yes, yes, whatever you say… You guys will pay for what you did to my home and my clothes.” I didn’t have any more fucks to give about these monsters.

I simply waited and waited until the pit of goblins had been filled sufficiently enough…

“Now…” I once again did my best to focus, despite becoming something increasingly difficult to do due to my low mana.

I gathered every last bit of mana I could muster from my body and started thinking of the appropriate mental image for the spell.

“[Freeze]” I muttered the name of the spell after giving all I had.

Soon, the [Waterballs] that were hovering on top of the pit all froze completely and the water that was falling on top of the goblins started to rapidly freeze as well… They were just a minute shy of becoming popsicles.

Unfortunately, I was not going to be able to witness that… As I had used almost all the mana my body could provide, I soon fell to the ground on my back due to mana exhaustion. I was struggling to keep myself conscious, but I knew that it was a losing battle.

“Ah… Mom is gonna be pissed about the clothes… And those goblins who probably bled to death in front of the house…” I muttered while looking at the blue sky above as my eyelids started to become heavier and heavier.

<The user has leveled up!>

<The user has leveled up!>

<The user has leveled up!>

<The user has leveled up!>

<The user has leveled up!>

<The user has leveled up!>

<SYSTEM ANNOUNCEMENT: The user has gained the Title: [Goblin Slayer]. The title has been added to the user status. 

Requirements: Exterminate a whole tribe of Goblins in the cruelest way you can think of.

Effects: +5 to damage against Goblins.

An alternate title known as [Goblins’ Nightmare] could also be gained…>

The voice of the system was the last thing I heard as I was being dragged to the land of dreams once again…

---

Chapter 22: Julius, Certified Lady Killer and Goblin Slayer (Part III)

END

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