Chapter 96: RIP.

Chapter 96: Chapter 96: RIP.

Chapter 96: RIP.

Its eyes were filled with tears from the smoke, and its breathing was becoming increasingly difficult as it stumbled forward without paying attention to anything around it.

Then its body suddenly slammed into something.

"Ke?"

The goblin stumbled backward and fell directly onto its backside.

For a brief moment, it simply sat there in confusion.

Then it slowly raised its head.

Two cold eyes were staring down at it from beneath a dark helmet.

The goblin froze.

Osborne didn’t say anything.

He simply stared down at the creature.

The goblin’s entire body began trembling.

It instinctively tried crawling backward, but its hands slipped against the dirt beneath it.

"...!!!!"

It finally realized that the armored man standing before it wasn’t another monster, but something far worse: an adventurer.

Who had been lying in wait.

The goblin hurriedly tried getting back onto its feet, desperate to escape the terrifying figure standing in front of it.

It didn’t even have enough time to scream.

SHING!

Osborne’s sword flashed.

The goblin’s head separated from its body before it could take another step.

Its body collapsed heavily onto the ground.

Osborne lowered his sword and calmly looked toward the cave entrance.

He didn’t even need to make use of his aura. The goblin was simply too weak when compared to him.

Even as his blade dripped with its blood, its head rolling onto the cold dirt.

There was no hesitation in his gaze.

These goblins had attacked travelers and were already considered a threat by the town, so he had no reason to show them mercy.

More importantly, he couldn’t allow even one of them to escape and spread the news that someone had discovered their nest.

Osborne stood quietly.

The fire continued burning.

Smoke continued pouring into the cave.

From within, he could still hear the sounds of movement.

Some of the goblins were shouting.

Others were coughing.

A few were probably trying to find another way out.

Osborne simply waited.

Time slowly passed.

The sounds coming from the cave gradually became weaker.

Eventually, they disappeared completely.

The forest became quiet once more.

And yet, Osborne didn’t move.

He knew better than to assume that they were all dead simply because the cave had become silent.

There could still be some goblins hiding deeper inside, waiting for the smoke to clear.

’I’ll give it a little more time.’

Osborne stood there for several more minutes.

Then suddenly, movement came from inside.

Several goblins rushed through the opening at once.

Unlike the first one, these goblins were carrying crude weapons.

One held a short wooden club.

Another carried a rusty knife.

The third had what looked like a broken spear.

Their faces were filled with panic as they desperately tried to escape.

"Kekeke! (Get out!)"

"Kekeke! (We have to run!)"

"Kekekeke! (Don’t stop!)"

The first goblin barely stepped through the entrance before Osborne’s sword flashed.

Its body collapsed.

The second goblin tried running in the opposite direction.

Osborne turned and cut it down as well. Thanks to his blade’s range and the goblins’ short feet, it wasn’t impossible with a horizontal slash.

The third froze when it saw its companions fall.

Its crude spear slipped from its hands.

The goblin stared at Osborne in terror before turning around and attempting to return into the cave.

Osborne’s sword pierced through its back.

The creature fell forward.

Osborne then pulled his sword free and allowed the body to collapse onto the ground.

He stood there silently for several seconds.

No more goblins came out.

The fire had begun dying down, and the thick smoke around the entrance was gradually clearing.

Osborne finally moved.

He walked toward the fire and raised his hand.

A large mud ball gathered above his palm before falling onto the flames.

The fire was extinguished in one breath.

He then turned toward the mud wall blocking the cave entrance.

His hand moved forward. He used his own strength to strike it, and the wall quickly crumbled.

Osborne stepped over the remains and entered the cave.

The smell inside was terrible.

It was a mixture of lingering smoke, blood, and sweat.

As well as the disgusting smell of goblins that had been living in the cave for who knew how long.

Osborne’s brows furrowed slightly beneath his helmet.

’This place is awful.’ He thought to himself.

He continued deeper into the cave.

Bodies were scattered across the ground.

Some had died from the smoke, while others had collapsed from the heat.

Osborne didn’t waste time.

He began cutting the ears from each corpse.

The guild would need proof that he had completed the quest, and while he could simply return with the bodies, the guild would obviously prefer something like this than that.

The ears were enough.

One after another, the ears were removed, and the bodies were stored inside his sub-space.

The process was rather unpleasant, but Osborne had already experienced far worse.

Once he finished with the bodies inside, he returned to the entrance.

The goblins he had killed outside were still lying where they had fallen.

Osborne crouched beside each corpse and removed their ears as well, then placed their bodies inside his sub-space along with the others.

Eventually, there was nothing left except the bodies of the young goblins.

Osborne stopped.

He looked at them silently.

They were smaller than the others.

Some were barely large enough to stand properly.

For a moment, Osborne simply stared.

He had already killed the adults.

These young goblins had never attacked anyone themselves.

However, leaving them behind wasn’t exactly an option either.

If they survived, there was no guarantee they wouldn’t eventually grow into another group of monsters occupying the same cave.

There was also the possibility that another group of goblins would discover the young ones and take them in.

Which was why he had to kill them as well.

Nevertheless, seeing their dead remains caused his stomach to churn a bit.

Osborne slowly sighed.

’There’s no point leaving them here.’

He gathered the young goblin corpses together.

Then he stepped back.

A small flame appeared within his palm.

Osborne threw it toward the corpses.

The fire immediately spread across them.

He watched silently as the flames consumed the bodies.