WE TRIED TRANSLATIONS

Translator/Editor: Coughing Baby

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◈ I Returned as a God ◈

Chapter 8: Goblin Village (4)

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The four of them bunched together and raised their weapons at the sudden appearance of monsters.

Kim Taewoon, gripping his greatsword, spun toward me and shouted.

"You crazy bastard! What the hell did you do!"

"Monsters, now, of all times..."

Fifty summoned goblins advanced slowly from the bridge.

"What's the Tower of Trials, and what the hell's a challenger supposed to be?"

"What? How would I know?"

"Aaargh! Wasn't the whole point that our status windows don't show up!"

"More importantly, they said those things are goblins, right? Where does that even look like a goblin?"

The summoned goblins looked nothing like the ones we'd seen in the dungeon.

Dungeon goblins had been scrawny things, half starved, armed with rusty weapons and leather scraps. These were a different animal entirely.

Well toned muscle, iron armor, sharp weapons in hand. They looked less like monsters and more like a trained army.

That's more like it.

Armor aside, these summoned goblins actually resembled the goblins I remembered far more than the dungeon ones had.

Whether that was good news or bad, I couldn't say.

I glanced toward the tower, drew my dagger, and rejoined the group.

The four of them threw me a quick look at the sight of the dagger in my hand, but nobody said anything.

Against fifty well drilled goblins, being treated as dead weight didn't matter anymore.

This wasn't a question of whether I could fight. I had to.

One of the goblins toward the back raised a spear. Bigger than the rest, it looked nothing like the goblin chief we'd seen in the dungeon.

A goblin lord. The king of the goblins.

At the king's roar, the other goblins raised their weapons in unison and let out a cheer.

The goblin platoon looked thrilled. Our side looked like a funeral.

Under the goblin lord's command, ten goblins from the front line charged.

Not all at once. That alone told me they didn't think much of us.

Kim Taewoon and Choi Minhyeok, the two with the closest range weapons, clashed with them first.

Choi Minhyeok's greatsword managed to block the attack. That was all it managed.

"Damn it, if I could just use a skill!"

The summoned goblins were a completely different breed from the dungeon kind, strong enough that even blocking their attacks, let alone striking back, was a struggle.

While one goblin held Choi Minhyeok's blade, another circled around behind him.

Sensing the danger, Choi Minhyeok squeezed his eyes shut.

I dove in behind him without thinking.

My two daggers met the goblin's blade.

As if it hadn't expected me to interfere, the goblin bore down harder.

Damn it, this is actually dangerous.

I gritted my teeth, holding the goblin's blade back.

"You..."

Choi Minhyeok frowned at me, having just been saved.

The frown didn't last long.

In a situation where everyone might die equally, pride didn't mean a thing.

Back to back with Choi Minhyeok, I locked blades with the goblin and fought for leverage with my daggers.

Truth be told, I'd overestimated myself. More precisely, I'd overestimated the body of Kang Hangyeol, the one I'd possessed.

Since I had no memories of my own from before, I had no idea what kind of person this "Kang Hangyeol" had actually been.

What mattered was that I had memories. Just not his.

Memories of crossing through death itself on the continent of Arbelisia.

The problem was somewhere else entirely.

I'd started training in a hurry, sure, but Kang Hangyeol's body was weaker than I'd expected.

Goblins like the ones in the dungeon, maybe I could've handled. Trained goblins like these, clearly out of my league.

And worse than that, this wasn't even about me.

Three people were each holding off a single goblin, and there were still plenty more where those came from.

"D-don't come near me! Stay back!"

"Hey! Do something!"

"I'm a mage! What do you want me to do if I can't use my skills!"

"There's no way an arrow like this is gonna kill that thing!"

By the book, it made no sense for the front line to break and let monsters through to the two support roles in the back.

But nothing about this was by the book, and everyone was too busy just trying to keep themselves alive.

I've got no skills to begin with, but... those two are different.

Just the belief that they couldn't use their skills seemed to be feeding a serious panic.

Lee Yeeun pulled out an emergency dagger and swung at the goblins closing in.

"Don't. Don't come..."

"Visualize it!"

"What are you talking about all of a sudden?"

"Your status window disappeared, not your skills! Shut up and use it like you always do!"

I hadn't said much of anything through the whole expedition, so the four of them flinched when I raised my voice.

Nam Unik, huddled on the ground behind Lee Yeeun, stretched his arm upward.

Several spears of ice formed above his head.

"Aaaaaaargh!"

Throwing both arms forward with a whatever happens, happens mindset, the ice spears above him shot out and punched through the goblins' armor.

It didn't kill them outright, but the startled goblins staggered back.

Heat washed over my back.

"Duck!"

At Choi Minhyeok's shout, I dropped low. He swung his burning greatsword in a wide arc.

Startled again, the goblins retreated.

"Ha... hah."

Choi Minhyeok, having burned through too much mana trying to drive the goblins back somehow, gasped for air.

Two goblins with their throats slashed open crumpled sideways.

Kim Taewoon's work. He'd heard my shout and used his skill right away too.

"Thanks."

"More importantly, how the hell did some guy with no affiliation know that would work?"

"Reasonable guess. I couldn't use skills either, so I didn't know if it would work."

"Weird guy."

An explosion sounded behind us.

Lee Yeeun used a body enhancement skill to kick a goblin back, then put an arrow through its head.

With several goblins dead, the remaining ones drew back slightly and reformed their line.

It wasn't just the goblins in front of us.

Behind them, a large armed force still waited.

Even knowing we could use our skills again, the road ahead was still a mountain.

Choi Minhyeok gripped his greatsword tight, watching the goblins warily.

"Think we can pull this off?"

"No idea."

"Ha, never thought something like this would happen before I even got my hunter debut."

"That a death flag?"

"Don't jinx it. I've got no intention of dying quietly."

Nam Unik and Lee Yeeun, having steadied themselves, came back to the group.

Can we do this, honestly not sure.

I usually tried not to think anxious thoughts, but the situation was bad enough to make it hard.

Maybe reading the goblin lord's mood, the remaining goblins let out a roar and charged all at once.

Give it everything you've got, for as long as you can.

Like the rest of the group, I had zero intention of dying quietly either.

Not after everything I'd been through to survive this far.

I dodged a goblin's attack with the smallest movement I could manage and got behind it.

I can't use special skills, but the basics should still work.

If anything, having a status window at all would've been the strange part, from where I stood.

I channeled mana into the dagger in my hand and drove it hard into the back of the goblin's neck.

The goblin screamed something monstrous and thrashed. Not enough force to kill it in one hit.

Practically hanging off the goblin's back at that point, I drove my second dagger in beside the first.

I yanked both daggers out of its nape at once.

Blood sprayed from the torn flesh as the goblin and I both went down to the ground.

There were still plenty of goblins left.

Goblin blood ran down the blade and onto my wrist.

"Aaaaaah!"

"Aaargh! Argh!"

Screams. The archers in the back ranks had started shooting.

I knocked away an incoming arrow with a dagger without thinking twice.

I managed to block it, but my wrist throbbed like it was about to shatter.

Right now, Kang Hangyeol's body is barely at the level of an average adult man.

Considering that right after I first crossed dimensions, my body had been a high school senior's, gone soft from too much studying, an average twenty-something's body was already something to be grateful for.

The problem was that the situation now was nothing like it had been then.

To me now, an average twenty-something's body wasn't all that different from a high school senior's.

Lee Yeeun took an arrow to the eye, Nam Unik took one to the leg, and other goblins pressed the advantage.

"Damn it..."

A massive fireball flew at Choi Minhyeok as he moved to help them.

He spun and wrapped his sword in flame to block it.

Having barely stopped the fire, Choi Minhyeok tried to rush forward, but Kim Taewoon grabbed him before he could.

Five goblins swung their weapons down at the two who'd fallen.

A massive spray of blood hit the ground beneath the goblins' feet.

One of the axe wielding goblins turned. A severed hand lay on the ground.

"This is insane."

Deciding this was no longer a joke, Choi Minhyeok gripped his greatsword tighter. A second arrow flew.

There was no more talking after that.

The remaining goblins charged, and I fought to survive along with everyone else.

Two down, and I was barely managing a third when it happened.

A pillar of swirling flame shot upward. Choi Minhyeok's doing.

The goblins fell back from the fire, and Choi Minhyeok stood there gripping his sword, staring at something.

His shoulder was soaked with blood from a sword cut, and an arrow was lodged in his left thigh.

"If I'm gonna die, I'm taking the boss's head with me!"

Judging it hopeless, Choi Minhyeok decided to gamble everything and charged toward the goblin lord.

A goblin's spear ran through his chest and stomach.

He hadn't even reached the goblin lord. A goblin standing nearby had run him through instead.

The goblin yanked the spear free, and blood and viscera spilled out through the hole in his stomach.

Kim Taewoon and I looked at each other.

The goblin lord raised its weapon and cheered again.

A few more goblins pushed forward.

Kim Taewoon, back to back with me, gasped for breath.

Not as badly hurt as Choi Minhyeok, but Kim Taewoon wasn't exactly fine either.

I don't think I can use one of my own arms much longer either.

I'd knocked an arrow away wrong while fighting off two goblins, and one of my arms was completely wrecked.

Judging by the swelling, the bone had to be broken.

"I'll be honest. I don't have much mana left either."

"Well, that's quite the confession."

I tossed aside my dulled dagger and picked up a fallen goblin's sword off the ground.

Footnotes:

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