The Path of Ruin

Kael was a little hesitant as he entered the forest with the four adults in front of him.

Not because he was afraid of the goblins or this 'mission', but precisely because of the adults in front of him.

'They... are strong.'

They were different from the previous trio who thought they had him cornered. The way they walked, the sharpness of their senses, their posture, their bodies, the way they made him feel when he looked at them...

'If they try anything, can I really escape?'

Once he was out of their grasp, he could lose himself in the forest. But that was the problem.

Could he get out of their grasp?

Fortunately, none of them had tried anything yet. Moreover... they had ignored many chances that they could have done something if they had wanted to.

Still, it was hard to get rid of the seeds of doubt inside him.

"How far to the village?"

At the muscular woman's question, Laen, who in many ways acted like the leader of the group, sighed.

"Ten minutes maximum. We'll slowly start encountering goblins now. A lot of them."

The last sentence was one that might have made normal people a little wary. As much of a threat as a bunch of kids with weapons in their hands could be, even to an adult, goblins were even more so.

It was easy, and quite right, to simply label them as 'weak creatures'. But their sheer numbers were a way of overcoming this, which they could and usually did not hesitate to use.

But not a single person in this group of five had a single change of expression as they thought of nothing else but slaughtering them.

It was as if they didn't care how many goblins they had to face.

And...

"Oh, look. There are actually a few over there."

The group paused, looked in the direction Laen was pointing. And they saw that he was right.

In the bushes, a few meters away from them, three goblins were staring at them.

But instead of the bloodthirsty eyes the creatures had, they had trembling ones. They were filled with fear as soon as they realized they had been spotted.

"Kael, how about you take care of these?"

Kael nodded quickly, without complaint.

He certainly wasn't going to refuse the lives left for him to kill. It would add four and a half hours to his life for free, after all.

He reached for his clothes as he began to walk slowly towards the goblins.

But instead of the dagger he had stol- well, borrowed for an indefinite period of time... he now held a different one. A much lower quality, much simpler looking dagger.

He was not foolish enough to take out a dagger of that quality, with gold inlays, in front of four mercenaries. He had hidden it where no one but himself could find it. That's why he was using a dagger he had snatched from the trio he had killed earlier.

He cracked his neck, bending it first to the right, then to the left.

He created a tiny warmth in his heart and directed it to his legs. Then, just as the goblins were about to flee, he suddenly accelerated his slow steps.

The fear on the faces of the goblins suddenly turned to terror.

The first goblin, who had turned to run away, simply collapsed to the ground after the pain it felt in the back of its neck. It didn't even realize that its head had been separated from its body as its world turned upside down.

Kael threw his dagger at the third before turning to the second goblin, who fled in the opposite direction. Never looking back, he suddenly ended up next to the third and grabbed it by the shoulder, pulling it back with all his strength.

When the goblin fell to the ground, the last thing he saw was an overpowering kick that shattered his skull.

Three goblins were dead in mere seconds.

Kael walked over to the corpse of the second goblin he had thrown his dagger at and pulled it off his back. Just then, he heard a whistling sound coming from behind him.

He turned to the four watching him, eyebrows raised. It was Laen who was whistling and clapping lightly for him. The other three looked genuinely surprised.

They weren't shocked or anything, though. They just... hadn't expected this from someone like Kael, a scrawny kid.

"Good job, you're better than half the cowards who call themselves mercenaries. But instead of stopping to applaud, let's keep going, we have a long way to go."

Laen went on his way, satisfied with the decision he had made. Just as he had shown the others that this interesting boy would not get in their way, he had proved the same for himself.

Now, he was sure. He wanted to recruit this boy into the Bahnal Mercenary Corps, he was clearly talented and promising.

He just needed a little polishing. His body movements, the way he wielded his dagger were too awkward, and once these were corrected, his true potential would be unleashed.

*******

'So this is a goblin village...'

It wasn't much different from what he expected, actually... except that it was really well hidden.

And, well... it was bigger.

He had thought that they were going to a relatively small goblin village because there were only five of them, but that was not the case. On the contrary, he was sure there were at least a hundred and fifty to two hundred goblins here.

He wasn't sure if five of them could really do it.

But he kept quiet. And that's when Laen spoke.

"We'll go in, we'll kill everyone, and then we'll leave. Don't bother gathering their ears. Simply kill any goblins that come your way."

The other three nodded, except Kael. He found this even more strange. Still, however, he kept quiet.

"Kael, kill as many goblins as you can and tell me the number when it's all over. Depending on the situation, you might even get a gift from me."

He simply nodded. Then... he saw that the others were finally moving.

First, Laen, with a rather large axe in his hand, walked out into the open, not caring at all if the goblins saw him. Then the muscular woman with a spear and the fat man with a rather heavy-looking war hammer. Finally, the bald man followed them with a rather long sword.

Kael paused for a moment, looking at the four in front of him and their weapons. Then... he realized what he had missed so far.

Except for himself, all the members of the team wielded heavy and large weapons. In short... each of them had tons of area damage.

'Is that why they were so relaxed...?'

With weapons like that, they could take out four or even five goblins in one swing. If they paid a little attention to each other, the goblins, who were not much more than small children, didn't really stand a chance.

As he walked to the back of the group, Kael looked at the small dagger in his hand.

He had always used a dagger because he was short and his hands were small. Not to mention that weapons like swords and spears were too heavy for him.

But... now, he understood the difference between these weapons and the dagger in his hand a little better.

As a dagger wielder, he relied on his speed. What he did best was to kill targets quickly, one by one. It was impossible for him to slaughter a large group in one go.

'Like an... assassin.'

"Let's go!"

Laen's booming voice jolted him awake. They were right in front of the goblin village now and he could see dozens - no... many, many more eyes looking at him.

The goblins, confident in their numbers, were not afraid of them. On the contrary, they were running at them like a rampaging horde.

And just like that, those at the front met Laen's huge axe.

As Kael looked at the carnage unfolding before him... he was almost mesmerized. Lifeless bodies splattered savagely around, blood watering the earth.

'Wow...'

It had never crossed his mind that only four people, especially 'normal people', could cause such a scene.

Goblins were being mowed down or crushed one after another, literally unable to do anything.

He had underestimated his group. He understood and accepted his mistake.

Normal humans... could be much stronger than he had thought.

But he couldn't just stand by and watch, he knew that too.

Before his eyes was a goblin farm where he could extend his life for hours, maybe days.

And he wasn't planning to waste it.

So, as always, he created a small warmth in his heart and directed it to his legs. He took a deep breath as he gripped his dagger tightly. Then, he dove into the goblins.

What if he didn't have much area damage? What if the dagger in his hand was short in length? What if he didn't have extremely high strength or full-body muscles?

If others could kill three goblins in a second with a single attack, he would rely even more on his most trusted skill. He would be much faster, three attacks in one second, killing three, just like others but in a different way.

And so, he threw himself into the carnage, into the instincts he had honed over a month. He didn't care about the random wounds he received, he just focused on killing as many goblins as he could, as fast as he could.

One was beheaded.

Another's limbs were torn from its body.

Another's heart was pierced before it knew what had happened.

Kael felt a small burning sensation on his back. One of the goblins had managed to wound him, but he didn't care and kept going.

Another fell to the ground, its skull crushed.

Another's neck was snapped back with abrupt force.

Kael blew through the goblins like an unstoppable storm. He instilled fear in their hearts and saturated his curse with their lives.

This mission... was much easier than he thought. But as rewarding as it was easy.