Kuro had passed through the gate, gone through something like a warp, and after a moment, he was gone and arrived somewhere else.
He closed his eyes, raised his head, exhaled slowly, and slowly opened his eyes, revealing the scene around him.
Kuro was staring at a clear blue sky with clouds. The weather was sunny, and around him were dense forests emitting beautiful cries. It seemed like a beautiful and peaceful place, but when Kuro lowered his head, the truth was revealed.
There were many corpses around the gate, horribly torn and mutilated corpses. There was one corpse that had been trying to reach the gate but was impaled by a spear and died. There was even one that had been split vertically, with each half thrown in two different places.
"Yeb, bloody as well."
"Well, here we are. But first... which one should I choose?..."
Kuro's eyes scanned around him, looking for any suitable bag for collecting. There was no rule against taking things belonging to the dead; it was an unwritten rule. The organization itself had told him this earlier: what happens in the gate stays in the gate. It might be desecrating the dead, but to Kuro? It was a free open shop.
"This one is good..... No." Kuro changed his mind and threw the bag away, picking up another one. He checked its quality and design, then looked towards a medium-sized bag. "...Hey, this bag is good!"
"Good, I'm ready now.... Hey, that's strange. Why don't I see any___"
While he was speaking, something sharp shot out at high speed. He leaned his body to the right and clearly saw an arrow shot at high speed within a quarter of a second. It continued flying, hit, and cut through five trees crookedly.
"And I thought you wouldn't show yourselves. You took your time coming here."
A group of individuals, 190 cm tall, with green skin, sharp fangs like a crocodile, and slightly pointed long noses, appeared before Kuro. They were armored to the teeth with metal armor, looked at Kuro with disgust without a single word, and drew their weapons towards him.
These were Goblin monsters, the ordinary kind, not Hobgoblins or Orcs. They were the common monsters found in this gate. Kuro looked at them and saw they had formed a combat formation, each holding a different weapon: a spear, a sword, a bow, and a magic staff.
"Gurqi! Que gi Gablas!"
One of them shouted in an incomprehensible language and charged at the intruder. He rushed towards him, and in a flash, he vanished, and in a moment, he was directly behind Kuro. His sword glowed with a dark green flash, and he raised it high, wanting to cut him in half.
Kuro lowered his body to the right, easily avoiding the attack. As he avoided it, he saw a flash of magic, and something thin shot from the staff, precisely cutting two trees as it passed. And just as he had avoided the attack, another Goblin, holding a spear, came. He thrust the spear straight towards Kuro. Kuro lowered his feet and leaned his body back; the spear passed over him as something like a green flash flew from the spear.
As it flew and hit a large rock in the forest, the rock shattered into fragments. While Kuro was watching the scene, an arrow flew towards him. At that moment, he grabbed the spear held by the Goblin and used it as a meat shield, receiving the arrow.
"Gii'ka!"
The arrow pierced the shield and hit its back. The Goblin felt pain and screamed. Kuro raised his arm, blocked it, and the two of them retreated. As they retreated, a large shadow fell over Kuro. When he looked up, he saw a stone spear heading towards him, descending with force like thunder.
Boom!
It was a spell cast by a Goblin wizard. They were all in a specific formation, breathing heavily. The fight was a bit harder than they had expected. They stared towards the dust cloud, let out a small sigh, and lowered their guard because no one could be safe from an attack like that.
"Cough, Cough!
!!!
The Goblins were shocked when the opposite of expectations happened. They saw the boy emerge from the dust cloud without any harm, and it didn't seem like he was in a life-threatening situation, but rather on a stroll.
"Wow, it seems you're in a hurry? Do you also want to finish this and return home quickly? Me too, I think enough playing around, it's time to get serious."
"Kiva'ti!"
The Goblin shouted, attacking again, but this time it was different. He swung diagonally from the ground upwards towards Kuro, creating a cloud that obscured Kuro's view.
He took an offensive stance and shot straight like a hawk through the cloud towards Kuro. But in the next moment, he saw his arm severed, so fluidly. When it was cut, the Goblin screamed in despair. The spear-wielding Goblin moved quickly and threw his spear towards Kuro. The spear was as fast as a bullet, impossible to see with the naked eye, but...
Kuro caught the spear with his hand. This shocked the Goblin. But the swordsman moved, grabbed his severed hand holding the sword, and directed it towards Kuro. In that second, two arrows flew towards Kuro, targeting his feet. Kuro moved, raised the spear, and swung it with force. Time seemed to slow until the spear hit the ground.
Boooom
"Wwaaag!"
Whooosh
This attack created a large dust cloud covering an area of the forest. When the dust cleared, the Goblins were seen and...
"Aaaaaaaggggggghhhhhh!"
The Goblin screamed in pain as he lost both arms from the explosive attack Kuro had launched. He retreated, blood flowing profusely from his arms like a fountain, and began to kneel. He saw his enemy holding the spear, which had turned black like charcoal, began to disintegrate, and turned to dust.
"Man, it would have been a good tool if it hadn't broken so easily."
The monster looked at him and gritted its teeth. It focused all its energy on its feet and charged at rocket speed. The speed was immense, and the distance between them was small. There was no way he could keep up with his attack. It opened its sharp fangs and focused its gaze on his neck, intending to slit his throat with its teeth.
Boom
Kyuuggghe!
A amount of blood fell, but it wasn't Kuro's blood; it was the Goblin's. Kuro had pierced its chest, easily piercing through its armor. The Goblin was shocked by what happened; its whole body was trembling, sweat and blood pouring from its body. Before it could react, Kuro pulled out his blood-covered hand and took something from its body, something like a crystal or a gemstone.
"This is first."
"Gabila....."
The Goblin fell. Before it hit the ground, three arrows shot towards Kuro. He retreated two steps back, avoiding the arrows while placing the crystal inside the bag. As he placed it, two Goblins rushed towards him in the blink of an eye. The spear-wielding Goblin was holding his fallen comrade's sword, and with him was the archer. Both were staring at him with bloodshot eyes, screaming angrily in phrases he didn't understand.
"Giv!kaaka!"
"Giv! Rashaca!"
The two Goblins rushed towards him, and arrows were shot, which Kuro endured while blocking the random attacks of the sword-wielding Goblin—because the sword wasn't that Goblin's specialty, the spear was. Meanwhile, they cursed him in their unknown language.
The Goblin felt angry and provoked because Kuro was blocking its attacks with his sharp nails. This made him feel despair, and he continued waving randomly. Then, Kuro kicked its legs with his foot with force, shattered its kneecaps, blood poured out abundantly, and it screamed and knelt on the ground. When the second one was about to shoot an arrow at him, Kuro reached him in the blink of an eye, pierced him, and cleanly pulled out a crystal. Its legs gave way, and it fell to the ground.
" second."
"Gisas qi..."
The Goblin, crying in pain from his friend's death, saw the stranger holding a crystal in his hand. He let out a scream, a "Waaag" towards Kuro, used the sword as a crutch, and jumped towards him, intending to kill him.
While this was happening, the Goblin wizard was holding the first collapsed Goblin on the ground, looking at him. He tried to save him, but it was no use. The eyes of the Goblin knight were fading slowly as he spoke his last words to the wizard.
"Qis.....gala, ggi.....org, gabila.....gabila...nil gabila, qi vos sa" The Goblin spoke in a sad, broken voice, looking at the wizard, his eyes tearing up behind his helmet. "Voo!voo!la qua qi bela!, di due gabila grabda!" The wizard shouted, speaking to him, warning him about something he said, and held his hand tightly, while his other hand checked the wound and tried to stop the bleeding.
"Gabila...gigiri... gabila" The Goblin spoke as he closed his eyes with a smile and regret, and died...
And then, he passed away, with a small smile behind his helmet, and his hand fell lifelessly to the ground. His eyes lost their life, becoming expressionless.
"Gaaabbbbrrrrooooo!gabbbbrrooooo!"
The wizard screamed loudly, hugging his comrade's corpse in pain, crying. He looked towards the one who did this, the one who caused his comrade's death, and looked at Kuro holding a third crystal, with his comrades fallen on the ground, both dead.
"The third."
Kuro spoke in a cold tone while staring at the last Goblin, who stared back at him in a manner colder than ice. When the Goblin saw all this, he didn't see a boy; he saw a murderous monster.
He unleashed every spell he had learned on him. He threw earthen spears, ice and fireballs, and there was even poison. All of them were heading towards him, towards Kuro. When Kuro saw this, he raised both hands high and performed something like a thunder clap.
The shockwave was powerful and violent, dispersing all the spells heading towards him. The Goblin was shocked, but what shocked him more was that Kuro moved and was now in front of him. He kicked him with force; he flew, hit three trees, and tumbled. But he got up immediately and muttered a spell because that wasn't all the Goblin had. He poured the last of his magic into his strongest spell.
His eyes were shedding blood, his nerves were bursting from his skin, he was turning pale. He poured all his anger and hatred towards Kuro and launched it at him.
"Gi bas'kaa!"
He unleashed a firestorm where Kuro stood; a large pillar of flame appeared. He sighed and spat blood while kneeling on the ground, leaning on his staff. He saw the tornado of fire rising to the sky. He closed his eyes and stood up with a confident expression, but something tapped him on the shoulder. When he turned, he saw Kuro.
The Goblin was shocked, and before he could utter anything, Kuro pierced his body and pulled out a crystal without expression. He walked away.
"Kiv kaaka....."
"The fourth"...
Kuro looked towards the Goblin wizard, who was on the verge of death, fallen to the ground. The Goblin stared at him as if he were looking at a devil. Kuro looked coldly at him, raised his foot, and crushed his skull, turning it into a bloody paste. The ground cracked like a spider's web under the force of his step.
"I need to control my strength better next time."
"Well, anyway, let's count. That's four. Plus paying the rent with the penalty effect, I need to..." Kuro spoke while counting on his fingers and calculating.
"Damn! I need to collect 1000 gems! Ugh, what a headache... I could have just killed 100, but because of that stupid decision, I have to collect 10 times more. (Sigh) Well, I'll go near the fortress and hunt more of them."
Kuro looked in a direction, and in a moment, he vanished into the air. Kuro went and shot through the forest at an astonishing speed, appearing like a mirage going and disappearing between the trees. He saw a light shining ahead of him and exited the forest.
"Here is the fortress and... WTF?"
Kuro was watching the camp from a distance with a strange expression.
There were stone walls 10 meters high and an open iron gate. Behind the wall were many houses with a unique and strange design. There were two other stone walls. The fortress served as a border town. Kuro had seen the fortress before, but that wasn't what surprised him. What surprised him wasn't its size, but their numbers. There were three times the number of monsters there.
"What the hell is this?"
"Since when did their numbers become this large? I was only gone for a while, and now they have a full army ready for invasion. Where are the other hunters? This is an F-rank gate! The second weakest rank after G!"
"Did the army forget that the gate would be broken if they left it like this? What's wrong with them? Do they want me to solve their problem alone!? This is very hard work, even though it's easy for me"
"Damn to everything, wait a minute....This might actually be something good to me. I might be able to collect them faster than I expected."
"This is really a good opportunity. I intended to go to another gate, but since the situation is like this, let me use it to my advantage. If I hurry, I might be able to return home faster than I thought"