AuthorPalt

Tutorial Rewrite 46

Added 2023-01-08 15:42:04 +0000 UTC

Going by how these things have worked so far, in only a single day, I will be forcefully summoned to the grand conference. I won’t have a choice. I can’t afford to assume I’ll be able to choose not to attend, so I need to stick to this until the null hypothesis is proven.

I was careless. The city is still riddled with goblins. I had hoped that I wouldn’t need to get to this point, but I don’t think I have any choice anymore.

I’ll need to set this entire city on fire. That’s the only way to do this. I don’t know if it will get rid of all the goblins, but it will certainly make most of them flee. Besides, it’s the only option I have left.

Since my final goal is the castle, I’ll start the fire on the edges of the city. That way, I can keep lighting it as I go along. Effective.

I get to it.

By procuring a torch from the fireplace of a tavern, I start putting a few abandoned houses on fire. They’re mostly made of wood, and a lot of them have thatched roofing, so they were basically designed to burn. The smell of smoke and barbeque was pleasant. Of course, I’m doing all of this wearing my goblin disguise. Any time a goblin spots me I quickly defeat it, but after a while, the fire has begun spreading on its own, so there isn’t much that I have to do to keep it going. Lots of running goblins all around. At the start a lot of them headed out of the inner city gates but now the entire inside of the walls are covered with flames so there’s no escape. The wind carries with it only smoke and charred flesh.

As I run right alongside the goblins, I make sure to personally kill as many as I can to make sure to increase my level. I’m at level 17 now. Since most goblins are only between level 5 and 9, there’s no problem defeating them.

<...>

I’m getting so many messages that I can’t do anything else than ignore them. It isn’t important.

The castle is getting close now. I had assumed that I would need to do some parkour or whatever in order to get inside, but instead, the drawbridge is actually down, letting the fleeing goblins escape inside the fort. Interesting choice, but hardly a good one in this situation. Because, see, all I need to do is wait for the king or whoever’s in charge to eventually decide to pull the drawbridge back up to protect those already in here, and then I can just go ham.

It didn’t even take as long as I had suspected before the fort was closed off. That leaves me in here with a whole lot of bags of exp.

Better get right to it, then!

Moving like whirlwind, I make my way through the crowd, eviscerating every throat I can get a hold of, tearing up whatever bowel I can reach, leaving those dying to do so in their own time and moving on to the next without waiting even a single second. It doesn’t take long for the soldiers inside the fort to notice what’s going on, but the crowd itself is way less perceptive. A general wave of terror goes through the entire collective, making the swarm flee with such energy that those too small or weak to flee with them get crushed underfoot. I didn’t defeat them personally, but they’re still defeated nonetheless.

The soldiers try to calm the crowd but it’s become a stampede, and the only way the soldiers can protect themselves is to fight back with force. The only other option is to lie down and die in return for not having to kill those they swore to protect. All and all it works out very well for me, because even those that escape still end up defeated somehow. I think I can even spot a few jumping into the moat, which isn’t very survivable when there’s nowhere to climb to shore.

Soon enough, the courtyard is becoming a fair bit less crowded, though the ground is certainly more so than ever.

And as if on cue, a certain head commander rushes out into the fray.

He looks at the bodies first, and then at me. Nice expression! Wish I could take pictures in here, because this one would absolutely be worth having. My feet still haven’t grown back. Moleman never did answer my PM.

Moleman…!

Fuelled by several different kinds of emotions, I fly towards the head commander.

He raises his sword and I leap at him and stab myself onto it which surprises him enough to get at his head and neck, but before I have time to tear off his helmet, another sword descends upon me, though I leap out of the way just in time. Another one of the commanders. But they’re all just around level 11 or 12. It doesn’t matter. Sheer force is enough to take them out.

I drop into a crouch that is compressed enough to register as a fetal position. The two commanders begin to frantically look around, and the second one of them looks the wrong way, I leap at them from below, slicing their neck in two before they have time to react. The other one—the head commander—is too shocked by the sudden death of his comrade to react when I defeat him in the exact same way.

Leaving them behind, I hastily pick off the remaining goblins roaming the courtyard, and then I head inside the castle itself.

With the narrow hallways of the castle interior, it’s easy for me to sniff out and defeat every single goblin in one-on-one combat. For some reason, I can’t smell the old goblin wizard, but I’m not looking for him, either. I don’t think I could beat him. He’s too far beyond me. And going by what my instincts are saying, I don’t think I need to kill him, either. He isn’t part of the stage, so to speak.

But the king and his guards are. I know they are. I can smell them. They’re the only ones left. The city only smells of smoke and cinders and the rest of the castle is nothing but blood.

I can tell where they are. I wasn’t there, but going simply by the smells present, I can guess that it’s nothing less than the throne room.

Since I won’t need it anymore, I change out of my goblin disguise and into my leopard one. If I’m going to be instantly summoned to the grand conference, I want to wear something proper.

And then, once I arrive, without a single shred of fear, I burst inside.

The king is sitting atop his throne, wearing his crown, but the rest of his clothing is a lot less totally formal than what he wore the last time I saw him. Somehow, he looks several years older, too.

And then there’s the six bodygua- hang on, where’s the other three? It couldn’t be that they died from the poisoned drinking water, right? Nah, that’d be… But I also can’t smell the other three, so I guess these really are the only ones left. Huh.

Oh, and then there’s also the queen and his three spawnlings.

Can’t forget those four. If I miss them, I’m screwed.