Chapter 41: The Dwarf

Now this...this one was a problem.

And a surprise as well.

Because standing in front of me was a dwarf.

He was short and heavily built, his body packed with thick muscle beneath the layers of dark steel covering him from head to toe. There was no hair on his head, but a thick grey beard covered the lower half of his face, spilling down past his mouth and reaching all the way to his neck.

A massive axe nearly as tall as he was hung across his back, its weight alone making me wonder how easily he could swing it. The gauntlets covering his arms hummed faintly with energy, the subtle vibration enough to tell me they weren’t ordinary pieces of equipment.

He leaned forward slightly, staring at me with an expression that was difficult to read.

Amusement... or insanity?

I wasn’t so sure.

But whatever it was, it made my heart pound.

There was also another human who caught my attention.

He was high-level, though nowhere near as powerful as the dwarf.

[Luther - Level 25 Swordsman]

He wore light armor designed for mobility, leaving enough freedom in his movements to fight without being weighed down, while a longsword hung at his waist within easy reach.

Behind him stood several human warriors, all armed and ready to attack the moment they received the command.

"This... this is the goblin that killed so many of us," Luther said, his eyes fixed on me with a mixture of disbelief and caution.

"Shocking, isn’t it?" the dwarf replied.

Thors took a step toward me, one hand rising to his chin as he studied me with open curiosity.

I instinctively backed away.

It wasn’t only because of his appearance. Despite his short stature, there was something intimidating about the way he carried himself, as though his size had nothing to do with the amount of danger he posed. The casual way he spoke while standing in the middle of a battlefield was even more unsettling.

"If I may ask, what is your name?"

"Sylas."

I answered, but Thors immediately frowned.

"That’s strange. A goblin capable of taking out three human mages and four archers should be able to speak."

Wait a minute, did he not understand what I just said?

It wasn’t that I couldn’t communicate with him.

So what was the issue?

A notification appeared in front of me in response.

[Dwarf cannot understand you]

[Social is less than 10]

Ohh... I had to increase my Social to communicate.

I had levelled up five times from killing the mages and archers, which had given me 15 points to distribute, on top of the points I had already earned from killing the first squad of humans.

I should have more than enough.

"System, add 10 points to Social," I whispered.

[Social: 0 → 10]

With my Social now at 10 points, I opened my mouth to speak once more.

"Why are you attacking us?"

Thors raised his brows, clearly stunned by the sudden change.

For a moment, he simply stared at me as though he was trying to figure out what had just happened.

"You... you really are something special. Did you not answer me at first on purpose? Or was it that you couldn’t until you did something? What was it?"

I frowned.

This dwarf was rather shrewd.

Which was like saying the sky was rather blue, considering intelligence was a trait dwarves consistently possessed in almost every source of fiction.

"Answer my question," Thors said.

"Answer mine," I responded.

Thors laughed.

"Your kind killed the humans in the forest, did you not? This is the consequence for that."

I frowned.

"We didn’t kill the humans. It was an orc."

"What orc?" Thors raised both hands, spreading them slightly as though he genuinely had no idea what I was talking about. "I did not see any orc in the area. Did you see any orc in the area?"

Thors turned toward one of the soldiers behind him.

The warrior seemed caught off guard by the sudden question, his eyes flickering between Thors and me before he quickly shook his head.

"No, sir. I didn’t see any orc."

"See... I told you no orc was seen."

I frowned.

That was obviously a lie.

He didn’t even hesitate when he answered, which made it clear this wasn’t some misunderstanding. Thors knew exactly what had happened, and judging from the way he casually dismissed it, he had no intention of letting the truth get in the way of what he wanted.

"Why are you falsely accusing us when the answer was right in front of you?" I asked.

Thors grinned.

"Hmm... Let’s see. Based on my knowledge of orcs, I don’t recall them ever choosing to eat only the brains of humans while leaving the rest of the body untouched."

I was shaken a bit by his words, but I made sure not to let it show.

"And based on your knowledge, goblins do that?"

He shrugged.

"You never know."

I frowned.

So they were attacking the clan because of what I had done?

No. I doubted that.

There was something else behind this.

If Thors already knew about the orc, there was no reason for him to come all the way here and accuse us unless this attack had another purpose.

I looked at Thors.

He was smiling with wide, unblinking eyes, and the longer I stared at him, the more that expression bothered me.

There was something wrong with the way he looked at me, something that went beyond hostility.

He wasn’t looking at me like an enemy.

He was looking at me like prey.

And suddenly, I understood why he’d attacked.

This lunatic.

It didn’t matter who the culprit was.

As long as goblins were involved, he’d always find a way to pin it on them. The truth didn’t matter to him, and neither did the evidence. He had already decided what we were guilty of before he even arrived.

Why?

There was only one reason I could think of.

He enjoyed hunting goblins.