There was logic to Greed’s words. We strode through the Merchant District, where I noticed a sweet scent in the air. It was a most delectable fragrance. Giving in to temptation, I took a detour and followed the scent into a side street, searching through the shadows for its source.
At the end of one of those distant streets, I spotted three figures in black hooded robes. I tried to use Identify to analyze them, but they were too far out of range. Then I saw one of their faces in a sliver of moonlight.
My breath caught.
What are they doing here at this hour?
But there was no mistaking it. I would’ve recognized those poisonous features anywhere. Rafale. That meant the taller hooded figure was Hado, and the smaller one was their younger sister, Memil. None of them noticed me as they headed inside one of the Merchant District’s most high-end shops.
It was the kind of prestigious place that only high-ranking people like holy knights could enter. I watched from the shadows as another group in black hooded robes went in. I knew from their ambrosial scent that they were also holy knights. I had an increasingly bad feeling.
What kind of meeting were they holding in the middle of the night? Whatever it was, if they needed to hide it from public view, then I didn’t think it could be anything good. I kept watch over the shop for a time, but I couldn’t tell what was happening inside because all the curtains were shut.
Besides, I was starving. My stomach rumbled with that other hunger. I burned with curiosity, but I had other reasons for being out tonight, and those reasons would not wait. It was unfortunate, but my hunger was getting even worse.
I turned and left the alleyway.
***
The large gate leading out of the Merchant District was a pale reflection of itself at night. The usually bustling street was enveloped in silence, empty of the horses and carts that filled it. In their place, a group of adventurers had gathered.
A glance at their equipment told me everything; these were seasoned veterans. Their ranks and stats were much higher than the adventurers I had seen on my first goblin hunt. I felt it in the weight of their auras.
“They’re here for the night hunt,” said Greed. “The moon is bright tonight, which means improved visibility. On top of that, monsters have to sleep, too. That means adventurers can kill large numbers of the same monster type while they slumber without incurring as much hate as during the day.”
“Ah, I see.”
Greed’s explanations were ever helpful. No ordinary adventurer went hunting at night, but for the experienced and skilled, night hunts were an effective way to make a lot of money.
When I tried to cut past the group, a scruffy adventurer caught sight of me.
“Hey, you,” he said. “I haven’t seen you before. You seriously hunting in that armor?”
“Yes.”
The man’s laughter echoed down the street. Clearly, he didn’t care who might be trying to sleep.
“Guys, listen to this. We’ve got a real hopeless case over here!”
I didn’t want to draw attention to myself, but I was now surrounded by a group of hardened adventurers, grinning down at me as though I were nothing.
“You must be pretty strong, coming down all cool and casual dressed like that.”
The words said one thing, but the tone of his voice said another. He was making fun of me. He may as well have said what he was clearly thinking: What’s a piece of garbage like you doing in a place like this?
“What level are you?” he said. “Go on, tell us. Promise we won’t laugh.”
“Get out of my way,” I said. “I’m in a hurry.”
I ignored them and left. My hunger was at its limit, but none of the adventurers even flinched at my red eyes. I didn’t need to bother with Identify to know what that meant; their stats were higher than mine.
As I left the gate, the adventurers called out to me from afar.
“You hear that? If he can’t say his level, must mean it’s low! Rookies like that always bite off more than they can chew!”
“You think maybe he wanted to join our party? You think that was it?”
“Probably. Not even in his dreams!”
“Hey, garbage boy! Come back. Maybe if you’re lucky some party will take pity on you and let you carry their equipment!”
“Not us, though!”
“You said it! Ha ha!”
They could say whatever they liked. Thanks to Gluttony, I couldn’t join a party even if I wanted. So I would do things my way, and I would become stronger than all of them.
Chapter 9:
A Feast
I STALKED THE GOBLIN GRASSLANDS by night, running through the grass. The second I found a goblin asleep amongst the reeds, I lopped its head off.
Gluttony Skill activated. Stats increased: Vitality +30, Strength +40, Magic +10, Spirit +10, Agility +30
I heard the metallic voice I had heard many times before. But it wasn’t enough. I needed more. These piddling goblins weren’t going to satisfy my hunger. However, I had run all the way here from the kingdom, so I took a moment to catch my breath.
Not a cloud crossed the night sky, and a full moon hung in the middle of it, shining its light on the goblin I had just slaughtered. On a regular hunt, adventurers took the ears of these goblins to cash in for rewards. My hunger didn’t afford me the luxury of time to harvest, so when I caught my breath, I stepped over the dead goblin in search of my next prey.
Footsteps sprinted through the grass, following me, except they weren’t just coming from behind. They were all around, from the front and sides, trampling the grass as they neared. Many, many. So many.
It seemed my prior hunt had been something of a small ecological disaster for these goblins. Those who had not yet been slain knew I was a dire threat to them all, and so they banded together to get rid of me.
I felt their gazes as I took position at a section of low grass and stood in place. Little by little, their footsteps came to a halt. My gaze flitted between the goblins now surrounding me. There were around fifty, but it could have been more. With my vision heightened, I saw their every move.
With Greed in hand, the goblins’ swords and shields would split under my blade. Even if they called for reinforcements and launched themselves at me in the vast numbers they were known for, in my starvation state, these goblins were nothing.
Under the weight of my red-eyed gaze, the low-level goblins froze. I swung my stare, holding each goblin in place as I stalked and evaluated them one by one. A few goblins realized something strange was going on and tried to run, but by then, it was too late.
They had intended to surround, crowd, and kill me, but by coming so close together, they had only made my hunt simpler. I slaughtered them down to the last, and the final monster fell into the pile with all the others.
Gluttony skill activated. Stats increased: Vitality +40, Strength +20, Magic +10, Spirit +10, Agility +10
A calm fell. I looked into Greed’s polished black blade at my own reflection.
My eyes were still red.
“I’ve consumed no small number of souls,” I murmured, “but I’m still hungry.”
I had killed more than a hundred goblins, and yet still I was famished.
“How long will it take?” I asked. “How many to satisfy the hunger?”
“Hm. At this rate, it seems goblins won’t meet your appetite. You must turn your sights to something more powerful. Say, a hobgoblin.”
At Greed’s suggestion, I left the grasslands and headed into the western forest, known as Hobgoblin Forest. It was said that when goblins developed enough power, they evolved into hobgoblins, at which point they took up new lives among the trees.
There were three hobgoblin types: fighters, guards, and archers. I could handle the fighters and guards in much the same way as I handled their lower level goblin counterparts. The problem would be the archers. They were fewer in number, but they attacked from a distance, letting loose arrows as they hid in
the brush. What made them truly problematic was that they covered their arrowheads in their own fecal waste. A hit from those arrows was toxic. They were extremely dangerous, and though Seifort’s adventurers called these archers “shitslingers,” they did so in fear.
I had learned all this from an old servant at Hart Manor who, in his prime, had been an adventurer. At dinner, he often regaled me with tall tales and exaggerated stories of his past adventures, but I enjoyed them all the same. As I cautiously entered the forest, I realized I owed him thanks.
Hobgoblins were like regular goblins in that they weren’t nocturnal, so as long as I didn’t make too much noise, they would go on sleeping. Like the regular goblins before them, I could kill them as they slept.
I found one hobgoblin slumped against a big tree, sound asleep. It stood about the same height as I did, but unlike me, it was thick-waisted and muscled all over. It was difficult to make out its color in the darkness, but I could tell it was the murky green of a higher level goblin.
I used Identify.
Hobgoblin Fighter, Lv 12
Vitality: 230
Strength: 340
Magic: 110
Spirit: 110
Agility: 230
Skill: Two-Handed Sword Technique
A hobgoblin fighter. That explained the giant sword by its feet, which it surely used in battle. The monster also had the perfect skill to go with the weapon. However, its stats were nothing for me to worry about.
As I edged closer, I noticed another hobgoblin on the other side of the tree. I knew it by the shield planted on the ground by its side, but still I used Identify, just to be certain.
Hobgoblin Guard, Lv 12
Vitality: 440
Strength: 220
Magic: 110
Spirit: 110
Agility: 110
Skill: Vitality Boost (Medium)
Vitality Boost. Medium. That confirmed my hypothesis from earlier: status boosts had levels. If there was a “low” and a “medium,” that meant somewhere in the world was a “high.”
I took the head of the hobgoblin guard first. The monster was so deep in slumber that it died just like that. Not a worry in the world.
Gluttony skill activated. Stats increased: Vitality +440, Strength +220, Magic +110, Spirit +110, Agility +110. New skill added: Vitality Boost (Medium)
I turned toward the remaining hobgoblin to find it had woken, alerted by the sound of its companion’s beheading. The monster opened its mouth to call for reinforcements. I plunged Greed deep into the hobgoblin’s throat, straight through its mouth.
Gluttony skill activated. Stats increased: Vitality +230, Strength +340, Magic +110, Spirit +110, Agility +230. Skill added: Two-Handed Sword Technique
The difference was instantly clear; hobgoblins answered my hunger more deeply than their lower level counterparts. If I had known that earlier, I would have skipped the grasslands and come here directly.
Even still, I ravened.
I used Identify to analyze my current stats.
Fate Graphite, Lv 1
Vitality: 8,041
Strength: 8,011
Magic: 2,501
Spirit: 2,501
Agility: 5,591
Skills: Gluttony, Identify, Telepathy, Conceal, One-Handed Sword Technique, Two-Handed Sword Technique, Strength Boost (Low), Vitality Boost (Low), Vitality Boost (Medium)
I pressed into the forest in search of my next prey. The night was young.
Chapter 10:
The First Level
S O PEACEFULLY ASLEEP one minute, and so dead the very next. With the edge of the black sword Greed, I said goodnight and goodbye to the life of another hobgoblin.
Gluttony skill activated. Stats increased: Vitality +440, Strength +220, Magic +110, Spirit +110, Agility +110
After the forty-fifth dead hobgoblin, my body suddenly felt quenched of its thirst. Little by little, my uncontrollable urge to devour and eat subsided, then vanished. I was at last released from my starvation. I gasped with relief and sagged against a tree in the somber darkness of the forest.
“Fate, if you mean to take a break, do it up in the branches of this tree,” said Greed. “There may yet be a few hobgoblins wandering the wood. Now that you’ve freed yourself of your starvation state, you’ve lost the boost to your senses, so no more heightened smell, and no more seeing in the dark.”
“Good point,” I said as I began to climb. I perched on a large branch. “I should be fine if I hide up here. But I’m surprised; I had to kill so many monsters before they even touched my hunger…”
“Indeed you did. Depending on how long you wait, the starvation may madden you. You may lash out at any and everyone. It will not be so easily appeased. If you do not wish for that to happen, you must make a habit of hunting monsters and feeding their souls to your Gluttony.”
“I’ll make sure I do,” I said. “I don’t want to feel like this ever again.”
I stretched out along the big branch and tried to rest. Moonlight filtered through gaps in the leaves above. The forest was a moist, damp place, and a little chilly too, but it felt just right for my body, weary as it was from all the hunting.
Below me, I caught sight of the occasional hobgoblin passing by. Hobgoblins weren’t known to be nocturnal, but some of them still patrolled. I was glad I’d listened to Greed.
Just as I was about to climb down and head back, the ground trembled through the tree, as if something big was approaching. Footsteps, and they grew heavier as a hulking goblin came into view. It was at least two times taller than me, with a blue-green color to its skin. In its hand, it carried an unwieldy club that looked as though it had been carved from one of the forest’s enormous trees.
“What?!”
By the light of the moon, I saw flesh and blood stuck in clumps along the goblin’s club, and I recoiled instinctively. But what the goblin held in its other hand made me even sicker. Though I didn’t know exactly what the body had looked like before the goblin’s club pounded it to death, the mangled shape was definitely human.
None of the regular townsfolk ever came to Hobgoblin Forest in the middle of the night. That meant the dead body dangling in the goblin’s hands likely belonged to one of the adventurers I met at the gate in the Merchant District. For all their big talk, in the end, they were little more than goblin fodder.
However, even if they had ended up goblin bait, those adventurers had been experienced. They knew the dangers of night hunts. To have killed one—or all—of them, the huge goblin must have been formidable. As it passed beneath the tree I was hiding in, I took the opportunity to analyze it with Identify.
Goblin King, Lv 30
Vitality: 21,000
Strength: 24,000
Magic: 5,230
Spirit: 4,560
Agility: 11,200
Skill: Health Regen
A goblin king?! So that was what they looked like. I’d heard about them from a fellow servant at Hart Manor. In these parts, goblin kings were basically like bosses of the goblins, and they were frighteningly tough. Only a few of them resided in the forest, and their encounter rate was extremely low. If you happened upon one, you went into that battle prepared for death. They were nothing compared to holy knights, but a regular adventurer was looking at a potential one-hit kill.
Even just going by stats, the goblin king was on an entirely different level from the hobgoblins. I used Identify to further analyze Health Regen.
Health Regen: Wounds heal automatically over time. Does not work on fatal injuries.
Damn, now there’s a fantastic skill . With that, I could keep on fighting even if I got hurt. I want it…!
With my current stats, fighting the goblin king wasn’t an impossible task. While I worried about whether to take the risk, the beast trudged deeper into the forest. It was a rare monster, and if I waited until I was stronger, I might never see one again. I made up my mind. I slid down from my tree, and I followed.
True to its name
, the goblin king looked like it owned the land upon which it walked. Not a single hobgoblin remained in sight. They had fled at the sound of the king’s footsteps.
The monster came to a stop at a hollowed-out section of the forest, where a small field of flowers surrounded a withered tree. It settled against the tree and placed its club on the ground. Then it began devouring the mangled adventurer. The disgusting sound of the beast’s wet chewing echoed through the forest, and with it, the occasional crunch of bone under goblin teeth.
“Why are you so scared?” Greed asked. “You know goblins do this.”
“But…”
“You know what happens to people who are killed by monsters. They are eaten. Humans are a delicacy for such creatures. Especially human children.”
“That’s enough! I get it. I know. This is… It’s just my first time actually seeing it.”
Yes, I knew. I knew monsters ate humans. But imagining it in my head and seeing it happen in front of me were two entirely different things. Witnessing an act so visceral was a greater shock than I expected. Still, I steeled my nerves and kept watching the goblin king, absorbed in its meal.
If I was going to take this king down, it made sense to attack from behind. Targeting an enemy’s blind spot was just basic strategy, though there was nowhere to hide in this open field of flowers.
I moved from tree to tree, cover to cover, monitoring the goblin king until I reached a position directly behind it. The monster had its back to me, and the tree hid most of it from view. From where I now stood, I could see only its shoulder, poking out past the side of the tree.
“Slow and steady from here,” said Greed.
Berserk of Gluttony (Light Novel) Vol. 1 Page 6
