Chapter 6.
The wooden squirrel that emerged from the portal raised its head and looked at Suchan and Turf.
The moment its greenish-tinted eyes met Suchan’s pitch-black ones, a message appeared in front of him.
[Achievement Unlocked.] [You have discovered the ancient spirit Alter Twig.] [As a great discovery transcending human common sense, Intelligence +3.]
Suchan’s stats increased.
The ancient spirit Alter Twig was a supernatural being capable not only of changing its form, but also possessing will and shape. It was an existence so rare that directly witnessing it could be called a truly precious experience. The sudden rise in his intelligence was the reward for that rare encounter.
“…Spirit? What’s that?”
Even though he received the explanation along with the reward, Suchan still couldn’t understand the current situation.
A living, moving wooden squirrel was simply too alien to him.
It was only natural to react this way when confronted with something beyond common sense.
“Could it be like those wooden statues I saw earlier? Wait… is this a world where trees are alive and moving?”
While staring at the spirit with puzzled eyes, the broken wooden statues he had seen while passing through the corridor suddenly came to mind.
The ones that looked like someone had deliberately destroyed them.
Remembering them, he instinctively tightened his grip on the spear.
He was wary of the small wooden squirrel in front of him.
Around those broken statues in the passage, there had been goblin corpses—and also the corpses of divine beasts like Turf. It was possible that this little squirrel might be another enemy threatening his life, just like the goblins.
Hearing his voice, the wooden squirrel also froze and stared back at Suchan warily.
Like a frightened small animal, the moss patterns on its body and the tiny pinwheel mushroom on its head trembled slightly.
It didn’t look like an enemy at all, yet Suchan kept his guard up and asked,
“Turf. Is this guy an invader like the goblins too?”
“Kyau.”
Turf gave a short reply, then bit down on the shaft of Suchan’s spear and gently pulled it downward.
A clear sign that it was not an enemy.
“Not an enemy?”
“Kyauuu!”
“A friend? This guy’s a friend? But it’s not a fox… and it’s not even a living creature to begin with…”
Suchan asked back.
Turf positioned its body to shield the wooden squirrel and repeated the same action.
Though it wasn’t perfectly clear, that was enough for him to understand right now.
The wooden figure was not an enemy.
“I don’t really get what it is, but it’s not dangerous, right?”
“Kyau.”
“Got it. Then tell it to run away quickly. The goblins are coming out.”
Suchan pointed behind Turf as he spoke.
Just as he said, urt goblins were pouring out of the portal.
Seeing the goblins, Suchan’s expression turned deadly serious.
“Damn it! Why the hell are these bastards carrying real weapons?!”
Unlike the goblins he had fought so far, these ones were armed.
Their weapons were nothing impressive—just short daggers like fruit knives and short clubs—but the fact that goblins who previously just picked up random basement tools were now appearing with proper weapons made Suchan tense up.
“Still, there aren’t that many yet. That’s fortunate.”
Suchan gripped his spear tighter and quickly counted the goblins.
Three were visible right now. But that wasn’t all.
Just as he started to relax, yet another goblin emerged from the black portal.
‘Their numbers are increasing! There’s definitely a bigger group behind them!’
Frowning at the sight of more goblins continuously coming out, Suchan gritted his teeth.
At that moment, the armed goblins also spotted Suchan and Turf. Yet even after making eye contact, they didn’t charge. Instead, they squinted and raised their hands to shield their eyes.
“Wait… are they blinded by the light and can’t see us?”
Seeing the goblins—using their four-fingered hands to cover their eyes in pain—Suchan suddenly remembered how he felt right after crossing the portal. He too had squinted and grimaced because of the blinding light.
Just like these goblins right now.
In other words, this was a golden opportunity for him and Turf.
“Attack! Turf!”
Gripping his spear tightly, he charged forward.
He planned to wipe them out while they were still dazzled and couldn’t see properly.
Understanding Suchan’s intention, Turf kicked off the brick floor and leaped ahead even faster. It reached the foremost goblin first and tore into its throat.
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“Grrk!”
The goblin whose throat was ripped open collapsed without even a chance to swing its weapon, clutching the torn flesh as it thrashed.
Leaving it behind, Turf immediately lunged at the next one.
The goblin sensed the attack and swung its wooden club in threat, but Turf easily dodged the wild swing and tore out the next throat.
Soon, two more goblins with ripped throats fell.
‘I can’t fall behind!’
Suchan thrust his handmade spear forward, piercing a goblin’s body.
The small chest was run through by the iron spearhead.
“Got one!”
After dealing with the first, Suchan kicked the impaled goblin off his spear and immediately stabbed the head of the next one emerging from the portal.
The sharp point sank into the goblin’s face, blood spraying everywhere.
“Tch!”
Suchan grimaced at the sticky, foul-smelling blood.
Even though these were vile creatures that had invaded and wrecked his home, taking a life still didn’t feel pleasant. But he couldn’t afford to stop now.
‘I have to get used to it! I have to kill every last one of these bastards if we want to survive and protect the house!’
Pulling the spear free, he hurled the goblin whose face was pierced backward, then thrust again at the next one that appeared.
There was no special technique—just gripping tightly and stabbing with all his strength—but against goblins who still couldn’t see properly, it was more than enough.
“Kehek!”
A goblin that had just crossed the portal had its abdomen pierced before it could even see what was in front of it.
“Grrraa! Grrraaa!”
Wracked by the excruciating pain in its gut, the goblin let out a bizarre, nasally scream and wildly swung its worn dagger.
It wasn’t counterattacking Suchan on purpose.
It was simply flailing desperately to survive an unknown attack.
“Stay still!”
Suchan yanked the spear, slamming the goblin to the ground, then flipped it upside down.
Just as he was about to drive the spear down—
The fallen goblin looked up at him.
Their eyes met.
Suchan froze, swallowing hard.
The goblin was crying.
Even though it was an invader, it was still a living being like Suchan and Turf.
Of course it feared death.
“You damn monster—don’t act like the victim!”
“Kyaaak!”
Shouting, Suchan drove the inverted spear downward.
The heart-pierced goblin vomited blood as the light faded from its eyes.
That sight reminded Suchan of the first time he learned to fish.
“Half-hearted pity only becomes poison! When you cut off the breath, do it cleanly!”
Those were the words old man Park next door had told him when young Suchan hesitated, feeling sorry for the half-dead sand lance he had caught.
You can choose to let it live, but that choice might mean someone in the family goes hungry.
Do you want your beloved family to starve?
Old man Park had taught him that pity is something only the strong can afford—and clumsy pity becomes poison for everyone.
“Once you steel yourself, you have to follow through. Otherwise you’ll end up with neither rice nor porridge.”
‘Even if I show weak pity, these things won’t drop their hostility! Then I have to treat them as clear enemies!’
Reminding himself of old man Park’s lesson, Suchan tightened his grip.
The first time you fillet a fish, it’s scary and unpleasant.
Because the very act of taking a life feels repulsive.
But if you hesitate to dirty your hands just because the meat you’re about to eat looks pitiful, you’ll never be able to eat meat for the rest of your life.
As old man Park said—half-hearted pity ultimately becomes poison that destroys you.
And when the target is goblins, that poison is beyond description.
“These guys are just fish. Right now, I’m just filleting fish!”
Pulling the spear out, Suchan stabbed the already-dead goblin’s heart again and shouted.
Puk! Puk! Puk!
He kept stabbing over and over to drive out the discomfort, disgust, fear, and lingering pity inside him.
“Ha! Ha! Ha!”
His breathing grew ragged from the intense movement.
Blood splattered all over his clothes and face.
The dead goblin no longer twitched, yet Suchan didn’t stop attacking.
The sight of him mutilating a corpse was brutal, but it was all part of his growth.
[Achievement Unlocked.] [You have acquired the trait ‘Resolve (????)’] [Resolve: Resist mental shrinkage / mental breakdown.]
The message announcing the new trait appeared.
“Trait? There’s something like that? What does it do?”
Suchan stopped stabbing and read the message.
Even after reading the description, he didn’t fully understand it. But he figured it wasn’t a bad ability.
Even standing over the gruesomely mangled corpse, he no longer felt nausea or revulsion.
“Whatever it is, it’s probably a good one!”
Leaving the trait message behind, he looked for the next goblin.
While he had killed three, Turf was already tearing out the throat of its ninth.
Turf was three times faster, but right now the competition wasn’t about who killed faster.
“Damn it—these monsters just keep coming! How many are there?!”
The floor was already covered in goblin blood and corpses. Yet the number of living ones didn’t decrease. Worse, they were now coming out in groups of three or four at a time.
Kill one and two more appear; kill two and four appear. The longer this dragged on, the worse it got.
“Tch! Hey! Squirrel! Get out of here! It’s dangerous!”
Suchan shouted while stabbing the throat of a goblin that appeared behind the wooden squirrel.
“Hurry!”
Knocking the pierced head aside, he pulled the spear free and stabbed the next one beside it.
Stab, pull, stab again—he kept repeating the motion and managed to kill six goblins that way.
But starting from the seventh, a problem arose.
Clang!
“Shield!?”
A metallic sound rang out as a goblin holding a shield appeared.
A wooden shield reinforced with iron at the center and edges blocked his spear.
Suchan frowned at his spear embedded in the shield.
“These bastards even have shields now!?”
He was shocked that goblins who used to fight with wooden clubs and stones were now wielding blades, clubs—and even shields.
But this was only the beginning of their counterattack.
“Keruk!”
Behind the shield-bearing goblin, another one with a sword stepped forward and aimed for Suchan’s spear-holding wrist.
His wrist was lightly cut; Suchan dropped the spear and retreated.
The goblins who went in first must have stopped responding, so the reinforcements raised their guard.
“Damn it!”
Looking at the wound on his wrist, Suchan drew the hand axe and pickaxe from his belt.
The goblin that had swung the spear at him was still barely keeping one eye open, staring at him.
It clearly hadn’t recovered its vision yet.
‘Before they regain their sight—before their numbers grow even more—I have to kill them!’
Suchan knocked aside the wildly swinging spear with his hand axe and charged.
He beheaded one with the axe, crushed another’s skull with the pickaxe, desperately defending the front of the portal.
Turf also focused fully on hunting down as many as possible to support him.
“Keruk! Grrraa!”
The goblins fought back fiercely against Suchan and Turf’s struggle.
Short but sharp daggers and spears threatened them; crude yet sturdy shields and wooden clubs struck at them.
Thwack!
“Argh! You damn monster!”
A club-wielding goblin struck Suchan’s back.
He immediately swung the hand axe and buried it in the goblin’s head—but another goblin slashed at his leg.
Crack!
“Keruk?!”
It was a dangerous strike, but thanks to his thick winter pants and homemade guards, the goblin’s worn blade actually shattered.
Seeing its own weapon break, the goblin panicked and looked for another, but before it could grab anything, Suchan swung the pickaxe.
“Where do you think you’re going!”
“Keek!”
The short pickaxe crushed its skull instantly.
Suchan yanked the pickaxe free and swung again—but perhaps from rough handling, the joint snapped with a crack.
Now his weapon was broken.
“Damn it! My weapon!”
Seeing the handle separate from the pickaxe head, Suchan hurled the useless handle at a charging dagger-wielding goblin.
It flinched as it was hit, then slashed his thigh.
The still-sharp dagger cut into his thigh; feeling the chilling sensation, Suchan quickly buried the hand axe in its head and retreated.
Turf also fell back to stand beside him.
Both of them were covered in bruises and cuts.
As the goblins’ numbers swelled, their attacks grew fiercer, wounding Suchan and Turf.
‘Damn… I’m starting to run out of breath.’
The problem wasn’t just the wounds.
His stamina was depleting; the hand gripping the axe was steadily losing strength.
‘I can’t keep going like this. I have to change the situation!’
Sensing the battle tilting against them, Suchan stretched his hand toward the goblins.
“Lightning Shock!”
Lightning crackled as electricity burst outward.
He used the skill to turn the tide.
“Grrrrrrk!”
The goblins who had just crossed the portal were electrocuted and collapsed.
Smoke rose from their bodies along with the smell of burning flesh.
“Turf!”
Having used his skill, Suchan immediately called for Turf.
Turf responded by unleashing its own skill toward the increased enemies.
A second flash of lightning erupted, and a dozen or so goblins that had just emerged dropped to their knees.
“Now! Turf! Kill them all!”
“Kyau!”
Suchan and Turf charged at the goblins who could no longer move properly.
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