Chapter 24 : Little Goblin Slayer to the rescue.

Helci had come to these woods to level up. She was someone you called a late bloomer. The gnome girl was already past sixteen years in her life but she had just recently achieved her ascension class.

The girl looked similar to a gnome but she wasn’t of pure descent. Her height was above what a normal gnome reached at 140 centimeters. Her figure was also quite voluptuous in regard to other gnome girls but she mostly hid it well under baggy clothes or armor like today.

She had fine features compared to others of her kind that mostly had rounder heads with larger eyes. Her hair was long and orange and she had put it in a ponytail so that it wouldn’t get in the way of her first hunt.

She was an orphan, the whereabouts of her family were unknown as she was abandoned at a young age. She was left at one of the orphanages run by the Church of Solaria and spent most of her life there. She would do chores there, slowly learning how to cook, clean and various other tasks.

Even though the church was the ones producing the class change crystals they wouldn’t just give it to the orphans. The child had to decide if they wanted to live as an acolyte or abandon the church life by the age of fourteen. She had chosen to leave, getting a job at a few places throughout Edelgard and finally ending up at the inn where she was now employed.

She had worked for two years saving up for herself and finally managed to get herself one of those elusive stones. She went through her ascension, the class that she was rewarded was a scout that boasted high agility and detection skills. This might have not been her chosen profession but she was happy nevertheless.

There was a slight problem though, the city she lived in had no nearby dungeon with easy monsters to practice on. She was able to register at the adventurers guild but there was not much work for tier 1 scouts that were still at the first level and had no battle experience. The notice board for bronze adventurers was filled with tasks similar to her current job. This was something she was trying to abandon as she was fed up with that sort of lifestyle.

She was someone that was stubborn, she didn’t want to ask for help from other adventurers. She also couldn’t trust them, mostly the male adventurers that could try to take advantage of her.

She finally decided to go into the nearby forest, the walk there took her two hours. She had spent the rest of her savings on a dagger and on cheap leather armor. This armor consisted of a chest piece and some wristguards. The rest of her attire was simple cloth.

She had never hunted a monster before in her life but from what she heard the goblins were quite easy to slay. To her knowledge, they weren’t stronger than ten-year-old human children which was giving her quite the confidence boost.

Helci wandered into the forest with the dagger in hand, going deeper and deeper without looking back. She was dead set on leveling up and starting her new life as an adventurer. The wind howled and the trees started rustling about which caused her to be vigilant.

Her class was a scout that gave her better vision than others. This class was also adept at hiding their presence while feeling out the area. Soon enough she spotted her first target. It was a pale looking goblin with a large wooden club in its hand.

She was a gnome hybrid so her size was slightly larger than this small monster. This placed her at an advantage as she had the height advantage. After observing the monster for a moment she noticed that it was quite lean and muscular. This didn’t halt her advance, she was dead set on hunting this goblin.

She gripped her dagger and started sneaking forward, she knew that the element of surprise was paramount. If she managed to land a backstab she could probably deliver a killing blow. She moved forward while the monster was looking down at something, there were some large insects there that the goblin started stomping on. This gave her a chance to move forward while sneaking.

The goblin was unaware of the small person sneaking up behind it. It switched to hitting the ground with its club while grinning. Suddenly it heard something snap behind it which put it on alert. The goblin turned around with haste to see a pointy-eared girl with a dagger rushing its way.

It didn’t have that much time to react and it wasn’t very skilled either. The goblin just swung its wooden weapon randomly in hopes of protecting itself. This was partially successful as it managed to deliver a blow to Helci’s side. This caused her dagger to go off target and plunge itself into the monster’s shoulder instead of its neck.

The monster screamed out loud, the pain unbearable as it jumped back to get away. The small gnome girl panted hard, she needed some time to catch her breath as the wooden club had slammed into her side causing some damage. The small goblin was a lot stronger than anticipated, even though her armor held she almost had her ribs broken.

She didn’t realize that the monster had called for its friends so she continued, the enemy was wounded and she just needed to finish it off. The goblin with rage in its eyes charged forward, it went into a berserk state and started swinging wide.

The girl was slippery as an eel, the blows weren’t reaching her but she couldn’t move forward either. The first blow had taken the wind out of her and she was now hesitating. She had almost no combat experience, having only occasionally fought with the other orphans or drunkards in the city.

Soon enough more goblins started appearing which finally forced her to turn around and run. She could barely handle one of these monsters, what could she do when four more appeared. So started her getaway, she was panting while running towards the city.

The forest was unknown to her and she was still just a level 1 scout. Her tracking skills weren’t quite there so she found herself running in a random direction. This was a mountainous area and luck wasn’t on her side as she found herself blocked by a high rocky wall.

She looked to the sides as the road forward was blocked. She could hear the angry goblins running behind her which caused her to panic unable to decide. Should she try climbing this or try her luck by going sideways, there could be a better climbing spot further down.

Before she could decide one of the goblins jumped out at her. It didn’t get far though as something bright and red came whizzing from somewhere. It pierced the monster’s head and stopped it in its tracks. One monster was dead and four more remained.

“Hey, you alive down there?”

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She heard a voice from above and she found it slightly familiar. She looked up and saw a person standing there, this person was wearing a black robe and it was hard to make out his clothes. By the sound of the voice, she knew that it was someone younger but still a man.

“I-I’m fine but there are more coming!”

She shouted out while slightly relieved that there was another person here that was even willing to help.

“I know, wait a moment I’ll clear them out.”

This was when the massacre began. She could see more of those red flaming arrows being shot out. They made beautiful red arches and burrowed themselves into the goblins the moment they jumped out from the bushes.Five spells and five goblins were dead.

She looked at the charred corpses that were missing their heads. The smell was something that she wouldn’t forget for quite some time. She spaced out for a moment before that person’s voice brought her back to reality.

“Why are you standing there, you need to leave, more goblins will be coming soon!”

“Oh, you should probably get the mana stone from that goblin there, the second one on the left before that, it’s to the right of its heart.”

The person shouted while dropping down some rope. Helci looked at the goblin in question and decided to follow the advice. To her surprise a small mana stone was there, if she could sell it she could probably earn a few small silvers.