A Middle-Aged Man Becomes the Strongest in Another World: The Physical Specialized Awakener - Chapter 9

At sunrise the next morning, Kaim and the rest of his party, along with me, gathered in front of the town gates.

“Hey old man, uh, I mean, Soushi, right? Let me introduce the rest of the team,” Kaim said, sword at his waist and shield in hand. 

Next to him, a braided girl holding a staff stepped forward and spoke. “I’m Meribe. I’m E-rank. I’m the mage of the party. Sorry in advance if Kaim gets on your nerves.”

Then a woman with short hair, probably around 20, holding a spear, gave a quick nod. “I’m Lanan. Also E-rank. Frontline attacker. Nice to meet you.”

Last was a small-framed boy with a buckler and mace, just like me. “I’m Lavelt, E-rank, I can use healing magic, but honestly, I prefer bashing things.”

Tank, attacker, mage, healer, classic party setup. Textbook-perfect balance. Also, everyone in this party is good-looking. This world has a surprising number of attractive people.

“I’m Soushi Okuno, F-rank. For now, all I can do is hit stuff. I’ll be in your care for a while. Kaim’s already helped me out a lot.”

I gave a polite bow, but Kaim scrunched up his face and said, “Ugh, don’t act all stiff and creepy, just talk like you normally do.” Maybe that was his way of trying to make me feel comfortable.

“You have a surname, Mr. Soushi?” Meribe asked.

Apparently, having a surname is rare in this country, usually something reserved for nobles. If a commoner has one, they’re probably from another country. “Yeah, where I come from, everyone has one. But just call me Soushi like before.”

“We’ve got the same gear, so I think we’ll get along. Why’d you go with a mace?” Lavelt asked.

“Well, it just seemed easy to use. I was considering a spear too, but it’s too expensive.”

“Spear’s good. You don’t have to get too close to see the monster’s ugly face,” Lanan said.

“What? But the feel of smashing stuff with a mace is awesome!” Lavelt shot back.

Lanan and Lavelt glared at each other like rivals. This is clearly a party with good chemistry.

“Alright, knock it off, you two. Let’s get going. First stop: the village,” Kaim said, taking the lead. 

And just like that, our goblin settlement extermination squad set out.

We left the town of Tolson and followed the road on foot. Yes, there are wagons and even monster-powered carts in this world, but only merchants and nobles usually get to use those.

Closer to cities, they apparently have shared carriages too. Surprisingly, people in this world seem to travel a lot.

After walking for a while, we saw fields in the distance. By the time the sun had passed overhead, we arrived at a small farming village with about ten houses. We went straight to what looked like the village chief’s house. Judging by how smoothly Kaim led us there, this wasn’t their first visit.

A man in his 50s came out to greet us. “Oh! Silver Wheel, huh? You came to deal with the goblins?”

“Yep. Mind if we use the well again? Also, could we talk to anyone who’s seen the goblins? That’d really help,” Kaim said.

So they do take information-gathering seriously. Good to know.

“Sure, follow me,” the village chief said.

He led us to a field where we met a middle-aged woman working the crops. She told us what she knew, though it wasn’t much. Some parts of the field had been damaged, she saw around 10 goblins in the forest about 3 kada (roughly 3 kilometers) away. Judging from the footprints left near the field, the goblins seem to move in groups of around 10. So far, no humans have been harmed.

Basically, the same info the guild had already given us.

“Do you remember what kind of weapons the goblins were carrying?” Kaim asked.

“Hmm, I think they were just holding wooden clubs… maybe?” she replied.

Makes sense. Unless you’re specifically looking, it’s hard to recall exactly what weapons monsters were holding. We left after that, refilled our water at the well, and then headed toward the forest where the goblins had been spotted.

About 30 minutes later, we found signs of a field having been raided, just like the woman said. I couldn’t tell anything from the footprints myself, but Kaim and Lanan, the frontliners, confirmed they were goblin tracks.

“Why did you ask about their weapons earlier?” I asked Kaim.

He scratched his head as he explained.

“Yeah, so goblins tend to change up their weapons depending on how big their group is. Smaller groups, like in dungeons, usually just have sticks or throw rocks. But larger groups might carry blades or even bows. In really bad cases, they can use magic. Not that I’ve ever seen that happen myself.”

“Ah, so their weaponry is actually really useful info.”

“Exactly. But judging by the tracks, this isn’t a huge group. At most, probably around 100 of them. Any more than that and they’d have started attacking villages by now.”

100 goblins sounds like a lot. But thinking about it, even I can probably handle 20 on my own now. These E-rank guys shouldn’t have any trouble.

“Alright, we camp here for tonight. Let’s start a fire and eat something,” Kaim said.

We got to work setting up camp. I thought my camping knowledge might be useful, but all I really learned was how much modern camping relies on convenient gear.

We took turns standing watch through the night, and as soon as the sun rose the next morning, we entered the forest.

The formation was: Kaim in front, followed by spear-user Lanan, mage Meribe, healer Lavelt, and me bringing up the rear. Rear guard is actually a risky spot, but with my Aura Sense skill, we shouldn’t be caught off guard.

Still, even if there are around 100 goblins, finding them in a forest this big won’t be easy. Or so I thought. Turns out, goblins have a habit of marking their path with signs, and following those makes tracking them surprisingly easy.

The “marks” are just dents or hits on tree trunks, so if you didn’t know what to look for, you’d miss them. This is where experience really makes a difference.

About 30 minutes in, my Aura Sense picked something up, eight goblins. But Kaim didn’t seem to notice. That’s odd.

“There are goblins up ahead,” I whispered.

“Huh? You can tell?” Kaim turned around, looking surprised.

“Yeah. About 100 rid (roughly 100 meters) ahead. Eight of them.”

“Wow, Soushi-san, your Aura Sense is really sharp,” Meribe said with a hint of surprise.

Looks like my skill is above average.

“Alright, me and Lanan will handle it,” Kaim said.

The two of them moved ahead while the rest of us followed at a distance. Soon, we spotted the goblins. In the forest, their green skin actually helped them blend in. Without my Vision skill, I might not have seen them at all.

“Yah!” Kaim shouted as he and Lanan jumped out in front of the goblins. Before I could even blink, four heads went flying and the other four were pierced through the chest and dropped dead. I was stunned. Their sword and spear techniques were so fast I couldn’t even follow them. So this is the power of E-rank adventurers.

Unlike in dungeons, the bodies don’t disappear out here. But nobody wants to carry a goblin corpse around, so they just carve out the magic stones with a dagger and take those instead.

Since I was there anyway, I helped and asked them to show me how to do it.

Yeah… I’m definitely going to need to build up a strong stomach for this line of work.