Kays Translations

Chapter 59: A Plan to Defeat Superior Foes

After Tauro shook off the pursuing goblins and returned to Dansas, he found Bob waiting for him.

“Tauro! Are you all right? Were you hurt?”

“I’m fine.”

Tauro smiled to calm him.

“I’m sorry. You saved me. It’s a bad habit of mine—I only think about how to escape once the situation has already become disastrous.”

Bob regretted failing to make the immediate decision to retreat.

“What matters is that neither of us was hurt.”

“You’re right. For now, we should be grateful we made it back safely.”

Bob recovered his composure and nodded.

They went straight to the guild and informed Chloe that roughly ten goblins, a Goblin Sorcerer, and a Goblin Knight had taken up residence in the shrine.

“What?! I understand…but this is a problem. At present, this guild has only three registered members: Bob, Tauro, and Kauno, a sixty-two-year-old local farmer who specializes in gathering medicinal herbs. We have no choice but to request adventurers from elsewhere. Yet everyone sent in response to our previous request left except Bob, and no one has come since.”

Chloe sighed.

“What about this branch’s chief?”

Tauro had wondered about the man ever since arriving without seeing him.

A branch chief would probably be a former adventurer and should therefore provide valuable fighting strength.

“The Dansas branch of the Adventurers’ Guild currently has no chief.”

“When will he return?”

“No, I mean there’s no branch chief at all. The previous chief became furious with the villagers for treating outsiders so coldly and resigned immediately after taking office. No one has replaced him.”

“What…? When did that happen?”

Tauro asked in disbelief.

“About three months ago.”

“That was just before I came to the village.”

Bob looked equally exasperated.

“Yes. I’ve been managing the guild ever since.”

The situation was more serious than Tauro had imagined.

If the adventurers who left spread word of the branch’s terrible reputation, no one who heard it would want to come. It was a vicious cycle.

In the first place, a branch couldn’t function properly without a chief.

At this rate, it would eventually close.

The villagers should have wanted to prevent that, yet the whole village seemed to be under some kind of curse from an outside source.

Even if someone explained the danger, the villagers would probably deny it.

Unless Bob’s mysterious “whiff of trouble” was dispelled, the vicious cycle would continue.

But no new adventurers were coming.

It appeared that Bob and Tauro would have to defeat the goblins by themselves.

“The guild will issue an emergency quest asking the two of you to exterminate these goblins. There will be no deadline.”

Chloe understood the circumstances as she formally assigned the quest.

“Then let’s commit to it. You and I’ll have to defeat them ourselves.”

“But wiping out a goblin group that includes a Sorcerer and a Knight will be extremely difficult.”

“We don’t have to defeat them all at once—or immediately.”

Tauro gave him a meaningful, mischievous grin.

“Tauro, that’s an evil look…”

Bob recoiled.

From that day on, Bob and Tauro relentlessly hunted the goblins outside the shrine.

The goblins traveled in groups, so the two never overextended themselves. Even if they killed only one, they immediately withdrew.

The Goblin Sorcerer and Goblin Knight evidently found the tactic troublesome. At times they led the remaining goblins in pursuit, but Tauro and Bob simply fled, then hunted only the isolated stragglers.

For now, they avoided the rare species altogether.

After repeating this strategy for several days, they reduced the ordinary goblins around the shrine to two.

“Isn’t it about time?”

Growing impatient after Tauro’s scouting report, Bob proposed that they attack.

“We can’t rush. Once the remaining goblins are gone, the Sorcerer and Knight will have to find food themselves. That will be our opportunity.”

“…All right.”

Embarrassed by his impatience, Bob accepted Tauro’s judgment.

The following day, the last two goblins left the shrine to gather food and never returned.

Tauro watched the shrine for the next two days.

With [Presence Concealment] and [Magic Storage], which kept his food indefinitely, Tauro was ideally suited to surveillance. Bob offered to take a turn, but Tauro asked him to conserve his strength for the real battle.

Tauro possessed many unusual abilities, but his basic physical attributes were still those of a child.

Once the fighting began, he would have to rely on Bob for raw offensive power.

At last, the Goblin Knight emerged from the shrine alone.

The time had come to settle the matter.

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