"Now then, since we've found a Goblin settlement, we can't just leave it as is. Nor do I intend to."
"Gruu."
At Rei's words, Set let out a cry as if in agreement.
The problem, however, was how to go about annihilating the settlement.
Should he burn it with magic, the way he had torched the Underground Organization's hideout in the Slum District? The thought crossed Rei's mind for a moment, but he dismissed it just as quickly.
Back then, the target had been a standalone building, which made burning it with magic a viable option. But the Goblin settlement below didn't afford that kind of approach.
The biggest reason was that the settlement hadn't been built on completely cleared ground—a fair number of trees still stood among the structures.
The trees of the Treant Forest were prized as construction material, which was part of it, but if that were the only concern, only a few trees would burn and there would be no real problem. The real issue was that using the same magic he'd employed in the Slum District carried a risk of the fire spreading, precisely because so many trees were still standing.
The spell Wild Dance of the Fire Spirits was designed so that anything outside a specific area wouldn't burn. But what would happen if part of a tree—say, half of it—fell within the spell's area of effect while the rest extended beyond it? Even Rei, who cast the spell himself, couldn't say for certain. Still, as the caster, he had a strong premonition that it would spread.
In that case, it's better to just attack the settlement normally. Fortunately, we have a decent number of adventurers and Lizardmen available.
That said, the adventurers were stationed here as Birth Tower guards, so he couldn't pull too many of them away. The Water Wolf was friendly, but there was no guarantee the other lake monsters felt the same. Given that they had already been attacked by lake monsters on multiple occasions, abandoning the guard detail was out of the question.
Which means the Lizardmen will serve as the main fighting force. ...Well, that should be more than enough.
Fortunately, the majority of the Lizardmen who had teleported to this world were warriors. Given that, there should be no issue when it came to annihilating a Goblin settlement.
"Set, we're heading back for now."
"Gruu?"
Set rumbled questioningly, as if asking whether they weren't going to wipe the settlement out right now.
Scratching the back of Set's neck, Rei explained.
"If just the two of us hit that settlement, the Goblins will scatter and flee for sure. And since burning the whole thing down isn't an option either, we're going to need a certain number of people."
I would've loved to burn it down ourselves if I could, though.
Hearing this, Set nodded, though he looked plainly disappointed. From his perspective, missing the chance to wipe out a whole pack of Goblins at once was a genuine letdown. But as Rei had pointed out, if the Goblins scattered and fled, that would be no laughing matter. The obvious solution was to return to camp, gather their forces, and then come back.
Understanding this, Set rumbled at Rei on his back, as if asking, So we're heading back, then?
Rei had no objections. He nodded without hesitation.
"Yeah, let's head back. We found the Goblin settlement—our primary reconnaissance objective. No need to push our luck here."
At Rei's words, Set rumbled once more and launched himself from the spot.
"That was fast. You already found it?"
The knight wore an expression of clear surprise upon hearing Rei's report. He had already been informed by the adventurers that Rei and Set had gone out to search for a Goblin settlement. But to hear that they had found one and returned in under an hour—that was astonishing even to him.
"It's Goblins, after all. Maybe the trees of the Treant Forest were in the way, but they had cleared quite a lot of them. Looked like they'd given up on the thicker trunks, though."
"...I see. And the number of Goblins?"
"I only saw them from the air, so I can't give an exact count. But... probably several hundred. Depending on how you look at it, there's a chance they could number up to a thousand."
"That many?"
A note of distaste crept into the knight's voice. Naturally—Goblins were, by and large, nothing but a nuisance. Their materials weren't particularly valuable, their Magic Stones were small, and the bounty for their Subjugation Proof Parts was pitiful. Left to his own devices, his honest preference would be to avoid them entirely.
But while ten or twenty might be tolerable, hundreds—possibly even a thousand—changed the calculus entirely. If left unchecked, the Goblin population would only continue to swell, and the camp would inevitably suffer for it.
...The truth was, the camp had already been attacked by Goblins not long ago. The damage had already begun. Considering those circumstances, doing nothing simply wasn't an option. They needed to annihilate the settlement as swiftly as possible, but there was a catch.
"Annihilating the settlement is all well and good, but how? Your magic, Rei?"
From the knight's perspective, Rei excelled at wide-area annihilation magic. The simplest solution would be to torch the entire settlement in one sweep.
But Rei shook his head.
"Using magic carelessly could cause the fire to spread. There is a spell that burns only a specific area, but... because of all the trees in the Treant Forest, I don't think it would work. It's not that I have a clear-cut reason—it's more of a gut feeling—but I'm fairly confident."
"...I see. In that case, we have no choice but to do it the hard way. But with the defense here to consider, that's a tall order."
"I agree. But what if we used not just the adventurers, but the Lizardmen as well? There are quite a few of them here. With that in mind, dealing with the Goblins shouldn't be all that difficult, should it?"
"Good point. That could work. It might be a stretch for me to ask, but if you're the one making the request, the Lizardmen would be glad to help."
The knight wasn't wrong. The Lizardmen had a strong cultural inclination to respect the powerful. And since Zozo followed Rei, and Rei had defeated Gaga, he was held in considerable esteem despite being of a different race.
On top of that, Rei hadn't beaten Gaga just once. The other Lizardmen had witnessed yesterday's unarmed mock battle, among other things. ...In ordinary mock battles, Rei had actually racked up a sizeable number of victories back at Marina's house, but the other Lizardmen had no way of knowing that.
For all those reasons, if Rei asked through Zozo to have Gaga and the Lizardmen assist, it was virtually guaranteed they would help annihilate the settlement.
"Yeah, so what'll it be? If you give me the go-ahead, I'll reach out to the others through Zozo."
"...Right. Getting hit by Goblins that many times in one day like today is nobody's idea of fun. Given the situation, we're better off crushing them now. Understood—go ahead."
Having secured permission from the knight—the man in charge here—Rei was about to head to where Zozo was, but...
"Rei, bring back the Goblin corpses. Leaving them lying around will cause problems. And fortunately... we happen to have someone here who'd be more than happy to eat them, so let's put them to good use as tribute."
"Goblin corpses... all of them?"
An expression of pure, genuine revulsion surfaced on Rei's face. Ten or so would have been one thing, but there were hundreds—possibly even a thousand. Hauling every last one of them back would be an enormous hassle.
"Wan!"
The Water Wolf suddenly barked.
Hearing that plain "Wan," Rei couldn't help but wonder if maybe it should be called a Water Dog rather than a Water Wolf. Still, he quickly shelved the thought and turned back to the Water Wolf.
"So, what is it? Don't tell me... you want to come along on the Goblin subjugation too?"
"Wan!"
Rei had said it half-jokingly, with no real expectation of a response. But the Water Wolf answered instantly.
The Water Wolf could understand human speech. The fact that it had responded meant, unmistakably, that it was declaring its intention to tag along.
"Um... are you serious? I mean, combat-wise, I'd appreciate the help..."
The current Water Wolf was only slightly smaller than Set, who measured three meters in length, so it was clearly strong. But the Water Wolf Rei knew possessed a far more massive form. Their actual battle hadn't lasted long, but Rei knew firsthand that it was powerful enough to fight more or less evenly with Set—even with Rei riding on his back.
Having the Water Wolf help annihilate the settlement was welcome. More than welcome, in fact, but...
"The settlement is pretty... no, quite far from here. Can you even go that far from the lake?"
The Water Wolf was currently outside the lake, but between it and the water, there existed something like a Water Rope. The question was how far that rope could stretch. And more importantly, what would happen to the Water Wolf—cut off from the lake—if the rope snapped for some reason?
Rei didn't know. Given the Water Wolf's abilities, he could guess it wouldn't be a problem, but that wasn't a certainty. Depending on the circumstances, there was even a possibility that the Water Wolf would die the instant the Water Rope broke. That couldn't be ruled out.
The Water Wolf was a friendly creature, and Rei's honest feeling was that he didn't want it to die. It wasn't the only friendly monster in the lake—the glowing Flying Jellyfish were also amicable—but while those jellyfish were friendly, they couldn't communicate, and that was a critical drawback as far as Rei was concerned.
That was why Rei shook his head at the Water Wolf's request.
"No, you'd better sit this one out. If something happened to you out there, we'd be in trouble."
"Wauu."
The Water Wolf let out a dissatisfied whine. Was it possible that, because Goblins were tasty—at least by its own palate—it wanted to come along specifically to eat them? That was the impression Rei couldn't help but form from the Water Wolf's demeanor, and from what he could see, the guess seemed more or less on the mark.
"What do you think?"
"Don't ask me. The Water Wolf chose you as its negotiation partner, Rei."
Rei had turned to the knight, but the reply was blunt. That said, it wasn't wrong. The Water Wolf got along amicably with the adventurers and Lizardmen, but it clearly recognized Rei as the only one worth negotiating with. Whatever the knight said here, the Water Wolf would simply let it go in one ear and out the other.
"Hmm... Set, what do you think?"
"Gruu? ...Gruu, grururu!"
Rei had no idea when the two of them had gotten so close, but Set rumbled in response to Rei's question, as if to say, It'll be fine!
"Uh..." Rei's voice trailed off.
Whatever he said now, Set probably wouldn't stop vouching for the Water Wolf. What on earth had happened between them last night? Setting that thought aside, Rei accepted that anything more would be pointless. Even if he told the Water Wolf it couldn't come, it had no obligation to listen. It could simply follow along to wherever they went.
"Fine."
In the end, it was Rei who caved. If the Water Wolf had been utterly useless in a fight, he could have put his foot down. But since it was undeniably strong, there was nothing he could do.
As for the Water Rope... let's just pray it's sturdy. Or maybe I should hope that this Water Wolf is some kind of puppet or construct.
Half-forcing himself to accept it, Rei shifted gears and scanned the area for Zozo. He spotted him right away—a short distance off, conducting a mock battle with Gaga.
Zozo was among the strongest of the Lizardmen stationed here. But Gaga was not an opponent that Zozo could fight on even terms with, even at full strength. Gaga swung a practice wooden sword—one with no edge, prepared for mock battles—and Zozo was blown away effortlessly. Even so, he scrambled to his feet immediately and charged at Gaga once more.
Rei decided to wait until the mock battle reached a lull before interrupting.