Chapter 98: Ritual Start

The spell began.

I watched closely as the shaman performed a short, peculiar dance, moving his arms and staff through a series of strange gestures while chanting words I couldn’t even begin to understand. Like some kind of ancient arcane language or something.

Gradually, the magic circle beneath the participants began to glow.

A faint red light spread across the ground, illuminating the symbols drawn around its perimeter.

Then, one by one, the goblins sitting around the circle lowered their heads. Their shoulders slumped, and their bodies went completely still, almost as if they’d suddenly fallen asleep.

Whoa. Is that normal?

I tried whispering to Gopushadow to ask, but there was no response.

Huh?

It looked like he’d fallen asleep, too. The other goblins from the Bright Red Nose Tribe were in the same state.

Uh... should I be worried about this?

I was a little concerned, not gonna lie. But judging by the shaman’s expression, this was probably a normal part of the ritual. At least, I hoped so.

Before I could wonder about it any further, the shaman released his grip on his staff.

The wooden staff floated into the air, hovering directly above the chieftain’s enormous body.

Then the skull mounted on its tip began to glow. Two fiery lights ignited in its empty eye sockets, casting an eerie red glow over the clearing.

Then, the magic happened.

Thin streams of crimson mist began seeping out of the participants’ bodies. They rose slowly into the air before flowing toward the floating skull. One after another, the streams flowed into its open mouth, as though the skull were drinking in their life force.

Damn... that’s actually pretty cool.

The shaman seemed completely unfazed by the spectacle.

He calmly sat down cross-legged beside the chieftain, placed his hands on his knees, and closed his eyes. Within seconds, he’d settled into a deep meditative state, his mouth still moving as he continued chanting.

Meanwhile, the red mist kept gathering inside the skull.

Then, a thicker stream of crimson smoke poured from the tip of the floating staff. It flowed directly into the chieftain’s chest, sinking into his body around the heart.

And with that, the ritual was officially underway.

Naturally, I immediately checked everyone’s HP. After all, I needed to make sure they were safe.

Fortunately, my system allowed me to monitor their condition in real time.

The moment I checked, I noticed that their HP was steadily decreasing. Every minute, the numbers dropped a little further.

However, something about the rate of decline caught my attention.

Gopugiga’s HP was dropping roughly twice as fast as everyone else’s.

Hmm...

So the spell drains HP in proportion to each participant’s current HP, huh?

That would explain it.

Since Gopugiga had a much larger HP pool than the other goblins, he was contributing more to the ritual. Meanwhile, those with lower maximum HP were losing less.

In other words, everyone seemed to be sacrificing roughly the same percentage of their total HP.

That’s good.

At least the spell wasn’t going to drain the weaker participants dry while leaving the stronger ones relatively unharmed. That would’ve been a pretty nasty design flaw, honestly.

But as I continued monitoring the numbers, I noticed something else.

Gopugiga had [Regeneration Lv. 2], which restored a whopping 10 HP per minute. On top of that, his [Carnivorism] skill gave him another 1 HP per minute, while his natural regeneration recovered 4 HP per minute.

That brought his total regeneration to 15 HP per minute.

That meant his regeneration was offsetting a good portion of the HP he was losing to the ritual.

And, well, the others had their own regeneration abilities, too.

That’s good. That’s really good!

I was actually pretty happy with how things were going.

At this rate, everyone should be fine.

As long as the ritual continued working as expected, there was little risk of any of my citizens running out of HP before the chieftain recovered.

****

Meanwhile, Gopuro and Gopuran remained on guard outside the magic circle.

Since they couldn’t participate in the ritual, their job was to watch the surrounding area. The last thing I wanted was some monster sneaking up on us while everyone else sat around with their eyes closed.

Still, after checking the ritual’s progress, I decided to reassure them. Through our connection, I told them that everything was going smoothly and that the participants were losing HP at a manageable rate.

Both goblins visibly relaxed.

"That’s good!" Gopuro exclaimed, tightening his grip on his axe. "Looks like we’re gonna save that big guy after all!"

Gopuran nodded, looking relieved as well.

According to my calculations, the chieftain should reach the required 50% HP threshold in about thirty minutes.

That’s much faster than I expected.

And the sooner we finished, the better.

We still had plenty of time before sunset, so we should be able to return to the castle before nightfall. Considering what we knew about the Dark Giant Spiders, I had absolutely no intention of spending the night out here.

But then, just as I was thinking about our return trip, Gopuro suddenly let out a long yawn.

"Urrrggghhh..."

He stretched his arms, looking like he was already getting bored. Then, rather unexpectedly, he walked over to one of the nearby wolf corpses and pulled out a butchering knife.

"Hey! What are you doing?" Gopuran immediately called out. "We’re supposed to be on guard duty!"

Gopuro glanced over his shoulder.

"Well, I’m just trying to make the most of our time here!"

He crouched beside the wolf’s corpse and began examining it.

"Even if we can’t bring these wolves back to the castle whole, we can still take their most valuable parts, right?"

...Oh!

Right!

Good thinking, Puro!

I’d been so focused on the ritual that I’d completely forgotten about the pile of valuable monster corpses scattered around us.

Leaving all that loot behind would be a terrible waste. And considering how many wolves we’d killed, we were talking about quite a haul.

"But what about our guard duty?" Gopuran asked, still looking a little reluctant.

"Relax. We can keep watch while working, can’t we?"

"Hmmm... I guess so?"

Haha! You two have a point!

I immediately instructed them to prioritize the wolf hearts and powerstones. Those were the most valuable parts, after all. If they had enough time, they could collect the horns, too.

A single Horned Gray Wolf heart could be worth 100 Points, while each horn was worth another 45. And powerstones were always useful. The more, the better!

Hehe...

I was genuinely pleased to see my citizens thinking ahead like this. Sure, Gopuro had only been trying to kill some time, but he’d stumbled onto a pretty good idea.

As a ruler, I couldn’t ask for much more.

However... let’s not get too careless.

I sent another instruction to the two of them.

Gopuran was to remain on guard duty and keep an eye on their surroundings, while Gopuro could handle the butchering. That way, we could collect our loot without leaving ourselves completely vulnerable.

****

Ten minutes passed...

Everything was still going smoothly.

The ritual continued without interruption, and the participants’ HP remained at a comfortable level. Nobody seemed to be in any immediate danger.

Meanwhile, Gopuro had already collected a considerable number of wolf hearts, horns, and powerstones. The pile of loot beside them was growing steadily.

That aside, I wasn’t too worried about our surroundings.

According to the goblins, Horned Gray Wolves were already the most powerful monsters in this area. There was always a chance that something unexpected might show up, of course, but the odds of running into an even stronger monster seemed fairly low.

And if another pack of wolves did appear, Gopuro and Gopuran should be able to handle them. Gopuro hadn’t even used his new special move yet, and his mana was still completely full.

Yeah, we’re probably fine.

As for the Dark Giant Spiders...

Well, it was still daylight.

Those creepy bastards were primarily active at night, so we should have a little breathing room before they became a problem. At this rate, we’d be back at the castle by then.

Alright. Everything’s fine.

The ritual is working, our goblins are safe, and we’re collecting free loot.

Honestly, this is going better than expected.

I settled in to watch the ritual’s progress.

Another ten minutes passed.

Then fifteen more.

The ritual was finally nearing completion.

The chieftain’s HP seemed to be steadily recovering, as there were some visible changes in his condition. His skin looked greener than before, and his breathing had stabilized. Meanwhile, my goblins remained in excellent shape. Even after all that time, none of them showed any obvious signs of exhaustion or discomfort.

Just a little longer...

Come on, big guy. You’re almost there.

****

But then...

A series of howls suddenly echoed through the forest.

"AWWOOOOOOOOO!"

"AWOOOO!"

"AWOOOOOOOOO!"

The cries came from all directions, spreading across the region!!!

"Huh!?" Gopuro straightened up, his cheerful expression fading as he quickly picked up his axe on the ground. "Horned Gray Wolves? What’s going on?"

Gopuran tightened her grip on her weapon too.

"What the heck? Why are so many of them howling at once?"

I was wondering the same thing.

Did something happen to them?

Somehow, I was starting to have a very bad feeling about this!