Gun Chapter 36: Enough Gunpowder (Patreon)

Wakasha moved through the forest with Deathbird in one hand and his other resting on the short sword at his waist, just in case something suddenly lunged at him before he could react.

After going a little deeper, he caught the faint stench of goblins somewhere nearby.

“I already found goblins?”

He estimated the distance and realized he was still less than a hundred meters from the outer edge.

That was basically point-blank range.

The outskirts of Chalk Forest were routinely cleared by adventurers to keep the monsters inside from spilling out and attacking ordinary people or threatening nearby villages and towns.

And yet goblins had already appeared this close.

That meant the goblin population deeper in the forest had probably reached the point of overgrowth.

Wakasha took a deep breath and crept forward in silence.

...

“Gi-gi!”

“Gi!”

“Ho-ho!”

“Heh-heh-heh!”

...

A pack of green goblins was gathered around a rabbit the size of a small dog, indulging their desires to the fullest.

Watching from cover nearby, Wakasha could only feel his eyes burning.

Because with just one glance, he’d already noticed the rabbit’s sex.

It was male.

How the hell had that kind of depravity made it all the way into another world too?

Rabbit-beasts were monsters that weren’t really monsters. Their combat ability was basically zero—unless you pushed them too far, in which case they’d kick you with their hind legs.

That was why the Adventurers’ Guild didn’t even bother listing them as proper hunting targets.

In a sense, a rabbit-beast was just a larger, slightly unusual kind of rabbit, and its meat was tender enough that some hunters caught them to make extra money.

But the rabbit-beast in front of Wakasha right now...

Even if he caught it, there was no way he’d be in the mood to sell it.

A rabbit-beast rolling its eyes from being violated by goblins...

No sane person was going to eat that.

Still, Wakasha’s urge to kill the goblins kept rising.

Sure enough, the only good monster was a dead monster.

While the goblins were too absorbed in the rabbit-beast to notice anything else, Wakasha had already loaded Mage Hand bullets into Deathbird.

Since he was in the middle of a forest, and had neither any fire-control measures nor water-related spells, he wanted to avoid using Spark at Fingertip if possible.

Otherwise, if he accidentally started a forest fire, he might just end up killing himself.

Bang!

One bullet struck the goblin “riding” the rabbit-beast square in the chest. After giving one final “shudder,” it went limp and fell asleep on top of the rabbit.

Monsters really did have sturdy bodies. They could just drop and sleep wherever.

[Monster Killed: Goblin. Gained 1 EXP

Talent: Law of the Jungle activated. EXP ×10. Actual EXP gained: 10

Concept Armament: Deathbird gained 10 Skill EXP

Spell: Mage Hand gained 10 Skill EXP]

“Gi?!”

The other goblins hadn’t reacted yet. From their perspective, their companion had just finished venting itself, gone limp, and flopped onto the toy without getting back up.

And at that point, Wakasha no longer cared about conserving his mental power or mana.

With his current reserves, plus the recovery from Gluttony... by his estimate, as long as neither dropped below 20%, he could fire at least a hundred shots.

A hundred bullets.

Even with his eyes closed, Wakasha could turn these goblins into sieves.

Not to mention that bullets loaded with Mage Hand basically came with built-in target lock.

Under Wakasha’s “infinite firepower,” every goblin there was gently lulled to sleep.

[Monster Killed: Goblin ×8. Gained 1×8 = 8 EXP

Talent: Law of the Jungle activated. EXP ×10. Actual EXP gained: 80

Concept Armament: Deathbird gained 80 Skill EXP

Spell: Mage Hand gained 80 Skill EXP]

...

Looking at the goblins lying all over the ground, Wakasha fell silent for a moment while staring at the system notifications.

The return from these goblins was kind of garbage.

At least slimes sometimes had individuals worth 2 EXP.

But these goblins really all gave just 1 EXP each.

Come to think of it, among all the goblins he’d killed so far, was the only one worth 3 EXP that little goblin leader?

While thinking, Wakasha quickly cut off their ears and collected them.

That made nine goblin ears from this spot alone, leaving him eleven short of finishing the commission.

Nearly halfway done.

Sure enough, once you had some strength, these commissions that once felt so difficult turned into casual side work.

Mage Hand was already more than halfway to leveling up too. Wakasha wondered if he could push it to level five today.

And the achievement reward for killing one hundred monsters was already close at hand.

A skill point.

Ignore restrictions, directly learn a skill, or raise one of his existing skills by one level.

The “learn any skill regardless of restrictions” part was nice and all, but honestly, Wakasha wasn’t short on things to learn right now. Just the spells in the Adventurers’ Guild alone were enough to keep him busy for a long time.

What he really cared about was the part where the skill point could directly raise a skill by one level, ignoring restrictions.

Because Law of the Jungle could be leveled too.

Sure, it couldn’t gain EXP through hunting, and it needed a full hundred thousand EXP, but that still didn’t change how absurdly overpowered the talent was.

Even if upgrading it only raised the EXP multiplier by one more times over, Wakasha would still profit enormously in the long run.

A skill that increased EXP gain was exactly the kind of thing that paid off more the earlier you upgraded it.

“Phew.”

Wakasha let out a breath, ignored the mess around him, and continued deeper into the forest.

As for the goblins sprawled on the ground behind him...

The forest’s power to digest things was strong.

This little bit of carnage wasn’t even enough to count as an appetizer.

Continuing onward, Wakasha ran into two more small goblin groups.

But whether it was good luck or bad luck, neither group had any special individuals like mutations or leaders.

After wiping out both groups, Wakasha was only four goblins away from finishing the commission.

But just as he was searching for his next target, sounds from not far away caught his attention.

...

“Gi!”

“Heh-heh!!”

“Waa-gi!”

...

Eight goblins had surrounded three adventurers.

And among those three, two were women.

At that moment, the way the goblins looked at the two women was practically glowing with lust and greed.

But a few of the goblins were also looking at the only man in the group with eyes that were... wrong too.