I Am Not Goblin Slayer

Chapter 366: [Goblin Expert]

In the warehouse processing room.Everyone was swamped with work.

After consulting, Steward Ivan had hired quite a few temporary workers on top of the existing staff.

Right now, those workers wore rough cloth aprons and leather gloves, and under the direction of Ivan and the others, they were sorting the various spoils by category.

Weapons were moved on carts to the blacksmith shop's stockpile area, waiting for the blacksmith apprentices to melt and recast them.

Herbs and active substances were each placed into their corresponding boxes, then stored in the compressed storage space.

Goblin, goblin-like creature, gnoll, lizardmen, slime—these common monsters in their various forms were stacked in the open center, awaiting further processing.

At first, some workers were terrified of these fearsome monsters.

But as the work went on, they gradually became desensitized.

They began to dismember their bodies as skillfully as butchering ordinary livestock: skins removed, useful organs soaked in preservative solution.

"Handle them gently! Those poison sacs are fragile!"

Ivan warned a novice pharmacist apprentice at his side.

"One intact poison sac can at least be exchanged for half a gold coin."

"Hiss..."

At those words, the new apprentice's hand trembled twice.

Fortunately, he steadied it and did not drop the "valuable" poison sac.

A speck of dust from the guild leader, landing on his shoulder, felt like a mountain.

The short, stout worker moving a set of rusty armor wiped his sweat and grinned.

"Steward, the goods we've taken these past two days are worth more than the whole month at my old employer."

Before jumping ship he had worked at a small shop where adventurers sold their spoils; in his view that had always been big business.

"That's because the Guild Leader is skilled." Ivan thought to himself, silently scoffing—no ordinary small shop could compare to the Red Dragon Guild.

Though he considered the worker narrow-minded, he had no intention of mocking him openly.

"Enough chatting, the next batch won't be long. We need to hurry."

His eyes swept over the busy processing area.

Over the last two days, not everyone was purely honest.

Hiding even a few valuables could equal the kind of money these ordinary workers might spend months or even years saving, so temptations were inevitable.

Yesterday a temporary worker stuffed a few silver coins into his inner pocket.

But his little trick didn’t escape inspection.

Everyone entering the processing area had to remove all personal items before entering and pass inspection when leaving.

The crows watched them closely, too; two employees were caught right at the start by those crows—the crows cawed and revealed their hoarding, and they were caught red-handed.

Faced with greedy employees, Ivan, who managed the base as steward, showed no leniency—he called the patrol and handed the thieves over for fair punishment.

Of course, aside from a few, most employees were honest and steady.

When the thieves were discovered, the other workers showed looks of disdain.

Part of the reason was that the Red Dragon Guild’s compensation was indeed generous.

Base pay was higher than elsewhere, and overtime brought extra pay, so even if the work was tiring, few complained.

At the end of the day, it wasn't the overtime that mattered—what mattered was the take-home pay. That paid the rent, the milk, the bread, the clothes their families wanted...

For ordinary members, how powerful the guild was or how impressive the Guild Leader proved irrelevant; those things concerned the big names inside the team.

They only cared about wages. Working for the Red Dragon Guild was busy, but it paid far more than their previous shop jobs.

Plus, the mess hall provided two free meals a day; occasionally when overtime ran late, there were even night snacks. As long as you didn’t waste the takeout, you could eat your fill.

Where else could they find such favorable conditions?

So their impressions of the young Guild Leader improved accordingly.

Some temporary workers labored very hard.

Their motive was simple: to be hired full-time.

To achieve that, they worked harder than others to leave a good impression on the managers.

Ivan had explicitly said they would recruit some official members later, depending on performance.

Besides temporaries, the full-time members also felt pressured, afraid of being marked down for shirking.

Red Dragon Guild’s good treatment and respectable positions kept people from wanting to leave.

......

Meanwhile, outside the city.

"You have accumulated 10,000 goblin kills, title [Goblin Slayer] upgraded to [Goblin Expert]."

A prompt flashed before Gauss's eyes.

Without noticing, he had actually killed ten thousand goblins?

That was no small number.

If those ten thousand bodies were piled up, they might form a small hill.

"Because this species [Goblin] is a mainline eradication target."

"Goblin Expert achievement rewards: Intelligence +1, Strength +1, Constitution +1"

"Acquired Divine Factor 1%, current Divine Factor: 1.13%"

Surges of energy rushed inside Gauss.

His body warmed slightly; a clear, springlike energy flowed around his brain.

Strength: 14→15

Agility: 12

Constitution: 14→15

Intelligence: 17 (16)→17

Perception: 12

Charisma: 14

Strength and Constitution both rising to 15 caused an odd change in Gauss’s body.

He felt his bones harden noticeably in just a few breaths,

and...

"Crack!"

He snapped his right thumb with force, forcing his index finger into a hyperextended posture.

But in the next moment,

the index finger quickly returned to normal under a mysterious force.

At the same time, the joint inside the finger—broken from the violent action—healed itself.

Strength and Constitution at 15 meant his body had already left normal human boundaries and was drifting toward monstrous traits.

Bear in mind, he had no active enhancements on—no demonization, no Sturdy Scale Bloodline, no body duplication—this was just his ordinary baseline; activating powers would make his regeneration even more extreme.

As for Intelligence, the purple-quality Moonlight Robe’s intelligence bonus was overridden by this gain.

"Phew—"

He stretched.

This increase brought more than just attribute points.

There was that 1% Divine substance as well.

A few days ago he’d been wondering where to find this stuff.

After all, before killing that Goblin Chieftain, he had slain nearly twenty thousand monsters without obtaining any Divine substance.

That Goblin Chieftain’s strength had been around level six to seven—hardly the strongest he had faced—so clearly Divine substance did not simply correlate with enemy strength.

Unexpectedly, reaching ten thousand goblin kills rewarded him with 1% Divine substance.

He could feel that ineffable force inside his body swell.

This power didn’t translate into direct stat increases like attribute points; to him it felt like a higher-dimensional force, an amplifier.

His profession core, the Mana Cup, and Sword Soul all became firmer.

At the same time, he sensed his rate of advancement had accelerated considerably.

[Goblin Expert]

Current effect 1: Bane.

In battles against goblins and related advanced species, your attacks deal an additional 40% damage. (Includes special effect critical hit, with a chance to trigger critical hits....)

Effect 2: Bloodthirsty.

Killing goblins and related advanced species grants a chance to restore 5% stamina.

Effect 3: Awe.

Exerts strong pressure on goblins and related advanced species; enemies will suffer varying levels of debuff when facing you.

The title upgrade was significant; besides the numerical boosts in effects 1 and 2, it added effect 3, Awe.

Thinking this through, he looked at the goblins fleeing below in panic.

He locked onto one.

Instantly, the tangible psychic pressure formed by the title [Goblin Expert]’s Awe pressed down onto that ordinary, weak goblin.

"Boom!"

The little green creature that had been scrambling away suddenly stiffened.

In an instant, a terrifying pressure descended onto the top of its head.

Its murky eyeballs rolled, revealing the white sclera.

The next second, it lost strength, muscles convulsed, and it collapsed to the ground foaming at mouth and nose.

"Goblin killed *1"

That weak goblin had literally been scared to death by Gauss!

Gauss lifted an eyebrow.

It turned out the title description of effect 3 had been conservative.

This was not merely a stat decline—its life had been snuffed out directly.

But he quickly realized the reason.

The Awe description reflected only the title’s raw power; considering the gap between him and that goblin—his 17 Intelligence, his powerful soul force—these factors amplified the Awe effect substantially.

Thus it produced a near "death glare" level effect.

To test further, he shifted his gaze to another goblin not far away.

His eyes narrowed slightly, focusing on that goblin.

The next second,

that terrified goblin likewise lost the ability to move, collapsed to the ground, and foamed at the mouth before dying.

"The speed seems a little slower than before."

Gauss continued testing.

He soon deduced a pattern.

The stronger the goblin, the harder it was to be frightened to death; some simply collapsed weakly without immediate death.

Among similarly leveled goblins, those with poorer physical and mental states were likelier to die instantly.

The team slaying monsters on the ground noticed these mysteriously dying goblins and glanced up at Gauss.

They couldn’t tell what he had done, but they guessed he was responsible.

Before long, the hundred-strong goblin nest came to an end.

This was the last nest on this outing and also the largest in number.

"Total monsters killed: 19,777"

"Let’s head back."

After packing all the spoils, everyone began the return trip.

"Roar—"

"Got it. I’ll have someone buy it when we get back."

"When have I ever lied to you?"

Gauss chatted with Hephaestus.

The red drake had been worn out these past two days from continuous flight; its food had been only monster corpses.

Gauss promised to give it a change of diet once they returned to town.

After all, this trip probably earned a decent sum.

The Red Dragon cut across the sky.

Only when it neared Falim did it slowly lower altitude.

At the city gate, townsfolk waiting to enter instinctively looked up, mouths unconsciously agape at those massive wings.

Griffin knights patrolling nearby deliberately flew a little farther away, afraid their mounts would be startled by the red drake.

Gauss followed a designated route over the city wall and finally landed gently on the Red Dragon Guild’s training ground. No sooner had he stepped down from the dragon’s back than a figure dashed over to him with quick, small strides.

"Welcome back, Guild Leader, you’ve worked hard."

Gauss turned; it was Pharmacist Ivan.

"You’ve worked hard too, Ivan."

He remembered this Dragonblood Warlock.

He tended to look at Gauss with an intensity that was almost burning—whenever he saw him his gaze locked tightly, as if looking at the sun.

Aside from that quirk, as an employee he had few faults. His work ability was strong; he was a solid management talent.

Gauss handed him the storage bag.

"It’s what I should do."

Ivan bowed his head slightly.

Whether by illusion or not, he felt that the bloodline pressure around the Guild Leader had grown stronger during those two days away.

Feeling the blood heat up as he approached Gauss, he swallowed and showed a faint expression of enjoyment.

He felt even his thin Dragonblood subtly strengthening.

"I’ll get back to work then."

Ivan didn’t linger; work came first. He took the storage bag and walked toward the processing area.

"Everyone, we have new work again."

Gauss looked at the bustling "workshop" and felt a swell of satisfaction, as if coins were bouncing over the building,

Gold coin +1, Gold coin +1....

"I'll head to the blacksmith shop."

"I need a bath."

......

Like coming home, the team relaxed and went about their separate tasks.

Gauss walked to the warehouse’s compressed storage space and opened the door.

Row after row of shelves were filled with neatly arranged supplies—an impressive sight.

Freshly forged ingots, stacks of leather, biological organs and tissues soaking in preservative fluid, herbs, beast fangs, seeds, decent secondhand weapons, cloth, copper coins, silver coins, gold coins...

After a sweep, Gauss had accumulated a lot of materials.

These processed items and materials would either be sold directly to other shops or used for deeper processing—crafted into armor and weapons, refined into special potions, and then sold.

Either way, it was a substantial income.

This was the benefit of establishing an adventuring guild and recruiting hands: scale expansion, increased channels, and multiplied income.

The old adventuring team model could not compare; a single operation’s yield here was far higher—he couldn’t even guess whether it was one-seventh or one-eighth of this.

Gauss walked the shelves several laps, nodding in satisfaction.

Life kept improving.

Maybe he could open a couple of shops on the commercial street to sell his own premium potions, weapons, and armor—another profit stream.

Hmm, discuss it with the others at tomorrow’s meeting.

Also, he needed to purchase a larger portable storage tool.

In the future, as he cleared more nests and gathered more spoils, the loot would truly pile up. With the guild’s processing and handling capacity, he shouldn’t waste it.

"Oh, right."

"Debbie, come over here."

"Guild Leader, any orders?"

"Help me buy ten sheep and two cows from the commercial street and bring them back."

He suddenly remembered and quickly delegated the task.

He was not one to go back on his word.