“I can’t go in when it’s like this.”
“Then let’s go home!”
“Hm? It looks like the king is coming out himself.”
“You’ve got to be joking…”
“You hide behind me, Rulina.”
A goblin several sizes larger than usual came out from the cave. He held an ominous sword in its hand. When it saw me, he howled loud enough to make the ground rumble.
So, I thought, this is the goblin king. I loosed an air cutter, but the king brought down his sword and cut it aside. Then he fixed his gaze on me and charged, bellowing. I pulled my sword out of my bear storage, blocking the goblin king’s sword as it came down on me. The blow forced me back, and the goblin king swung his free arm.
I was still sent flying, even when I defended against it with my white bear, but I circulated some mana to my shoes and closed the distance again.
Maybe my level wasn’t high enough? I thought. If normal magic didn’t work on him, then how about bear magic?
“Bear cutter.”
I imagined a bear’s sharp claws as I aimed at the goblin king and brought my bear glove down. Three wind blades slashed at the goblin king. He swung his sword in the same way he had earlier, trying to destroy what I conjured, but this time the bear cutter kept up its assault.
“Huh?”
It didn’t bring him down. Though the goblin king was bloodied by my bear cutter, it didn’t cut through him.
“He’s tough.”
Still, now I knew I could damage him. Perhaps frustrated that he was hurt, the goblin king cried out and glared at me again. He started running.
I guessed we’d decide the match soon, now. I loosed an earth spell, and a deep hole opened in front of the goblin king. His anger had made all his blood rush to his head. Too busy looking at me to watch his feet, he tumbled right in.
I was afraid that if I dropped bear fire on him I’d melt him, mana gem and all, so I aimed several bear cutters into the hole.
“Bear cutter, bear cutter, bear cutter, bear cutter, bear cutter.”
He was a lot more tenacious than I thought. I could hear his bellows from the bottom of the hole. He might have been trying to climb out, but my bear cutters were probably keeping him down.
After a while of throwing bear cutters, I stopped hearing his shouts. When I looked through my hood, the goblin king’s signal had disappeared. I stopped casting, and Rulina came out from the shadows of the trees.
“Is it over?”
“He’s dead.”
“I can’t believe you could actually beat a goblin king.”
“I was a little surprised—he was stronger than I thought. I’m going to make sure he’s dead, so move away from the hole.”
I used earth magic to raise the ground at the bottom of the hole. The goblin king that came into view was dead, his body frozen in a silent scream. His face still struck fear in me.
“He really is dead, right?”
“Yeah.” Just to dispel Rulina’s fears, I hit the goblin king’s motionless body with an air cutter. “So, what should we do with this?”
“Yuna, he’ll fit in your bottomless bag, right?”
“He would.”
“Then, could you do that? His mana gem would be proof enough, but if we can, I’d like to bring home the corpse.”
I put the goblin king in the bear storage, taking care to pick up his sword separately, then cooled the cave with a couple wind and water spells. “The cave should be fine to go in now, I think. Could you do the rest?”
“Uhh, I’m going to just confirm, but is the cave safe?”
“It’s fine. But there are a lot of dead goblins, so I think hacking them up is going to be a lot of work.”
“Yuna, what would you think of helping—”
“Nope.” I was absolutely not going to cut open goblin corpses to harvest their mana gems. Having turned Rulina down flat, I then conjured up a bear-shaped light. “It’s dark in there, so here’s a present. You can take it with you.”
“Thanks? I don’t really get why it’s bear-shaped, but I’m grateful.”
Rulina went into the cave alone. The work of getting a mana gem out of a goblin took a minute per goblin at the fastest, and there were probably about eighty in the cave. Factoring in how long it would take for her to move around the cave, I was probably looking at a two-hour wait.
I erected a small house with earth magic and gave it a little window for ventilation. Once I was in, I sealed the entrance behind me to keep out any monsters that might happen by. Finally, I made a pallet of earth and laid down. It was hard, but not impossible to sleep on. I’d have to buy myself a blanket.
I was worn out, so sleep came to me quickly.
Chapter 14:
The Bear Reports
“YUNA! YUNA! Wake up.”
“Rulina, you’re being too loud.” I rubbed my sleepy eyes as I roused.
“You’re finally awake,” said Rulina, peeking in through the tiny window. “I was out there working my butt off prying these out while you were making a house and taking a cat nap? That’s so unfair.”
“But butchering is your work, isn’t it? Are you done?” I straightened and stretched my joints.
“Yeah. I came out of the cave and was shocked to find a house. And when I looked in, you were asleep! And I couldn’t get in, because there isn’t a door!”
I parted the walls to make a door and exited the house with magic. The sun was starting to get low in the sky, so it was probably around three?
“There were way too many goblins. It was so hard—all because you didn’t help.”
I ignored her and changed the subject. “Do you need anything else from the cave?”
“Don’t think so.”
“Then I’m going to seal it up, since we wouldn’t want any other monsters holing up in there.”
I plugged it
