40

Mathias unsheathed his rusty sword and walked towards the goblins.

"Wait. Can your sword really handle the battle? It might break..." Luna asked, trying to sound casual, but she was actually worried inside.

It felt weird, but in the time he had spent with Mathias, Luna felt more alive and lively.

Although Mathias had clearly just lied to her, Luna was also glad that he had become honest with her, rather than continuing to lie in order to be close to her.

"Don't worry, any sword, whether it's ugly or broken, will become good and beautiful in my hands," Mathias said with a slight smile before dashing towards the goblins.

Luna blushed as she saw Mathias smiling slightly.

After Mathias had revealed his name to her, he had also revealed his true appearance. Luna couldn't continue using the illusion spell all the time, especially since Luna now knew him.

Mathias's actions alarmed the goblins and the mobs attacked him.

Mathias easily evaded and attacked the goblins' vital parts.

Mathias slashed their necks, then continued by stabbing their hearts.

With Mathias's amazing footwork, he was able to evade the goblins' relentless attacks and always one-hit the weak goblins.

In a minute, the goblins, which had originally numbered twenty, were reduced to five.

The five goblins tried to escape by running into the cave, but Mathias chased after the four and killed them.

As for the last goblin, Mathias let it escape in hopes of calling the rest of the goblins in the nest to make things less troublesome. He didn't want to fight in the cave, where the goblins had the territorial advantage and it would be more difficult.

Although the goblins were weak, they were numerous and would tire Mathias out as his stamina stats were much lower compared to his other stats.

"Why did you let the other one go? Now he may call for the others!" Luna asked Mathias with a confused tone.

"That's the point. We'll just wait for that guy to call his friends while waiting here." Mathias explained with a smile, feeling smart.

"You idiot! We could have just sneaked inside and killed them with their guards down like earlier. Now, they will be ready and have their weapons ready!" Luna looked at Mathias as if he was dumb and shouted angrily.

"Oh. I forgot you're an Archer." Mathias scratched the back of his head awkwardly.

"You're really stupid." Luna sighed and also readied her bow.

Finally, a bunch of goblins led by a burly and terrifying goblin appeared walking towards the two of them.

"That's- That's a goblin king!" Luna exclaimed in shock.

"Goblin king?" Mathias asked confusedly.

"Now wonder there's a surge of goblins in these area in these recent days! It's because of that goblin king!" Luna felt terrible and her expression became hopeless.

"Hey! Don't give up, I'm still here!!!" Mathias reassured Luna as he saw her losing hope.

"You!? The goblin king realm is a lower stage of the King Realm!" Luna shouted at Mathias with despair.

"Lower stage of the King realm?" Mathias was ignorant about these things and asked.

Seeing the Goblin King approaching, Luna felt that it was alright to explain to the idiot teammate, and besides, she would rather fight to the death rather than surrendering.

"The King Realm is above the Great Realm... and the King realm is the realm of the kings! They're the sovereigns of their own nations! Although the goblin king is only at a lower stage, he's still enough to kill us many times over!"

Luna didn't really expect such a beast to exist in this forest. If she had known, she would never have accepted the request.

She had only randomly picked a request because she was in a hurry after seeing Mathias on the request or task board in the Adventurer guild. Since it was only a class b task, she accepted it without worries.

She also disregarded the possibility of a goblin king being in these mere forests because goblin kings were legend she had just read about in a book when she was a child. She didn't actually expect to encounter one.

'It seems to be more powerful than that guardian knight!' Mathias finally realized the threat of the Goblin King.

"Don't worry! I'll never give up!!" Mathias could actually escape, but he didn't mention it because he wanted to see her becoming more open to him. He acted as if he could stand up to everything, even with pressure, like a man that might impress her and slowly make her like him because of it.

And also, facing pressure together would inevitably lead to them slowly developing feelings for each other.

"A two human, eh? Hehe!" The goblin king spoke up, his voice was terrifying without exaggeration, especially as it seemed to bring a sense of terror to anyone who heard it.

A goblin beside the goblin king, who had run away from Mathias earlier, seemed to be saying something to the goblin king in an unrecognizable language.

"Hmm! Alright, I'll avenge their deaths!" The goblin nodded as he listened to his subject.

The goblin cried and slammed his head repeatedly towards the goblin king.

"After a goblin king is born, the goblins under him gain an intelligence." Luna explained to Mathias in a soft voice.

Mathias nodded and found it interesting. He remembered his past life and how there was a fiction of a human reincarnated as a goblin. It was quite interesting to be honest, but seeing the terrifying goblin, Mathias opened his system interface to see if he was rewarded for kissing Luna.