“Umm, would you mind… leaving now?” a scared, timid villager with a fishing spear stood before me. Behind him, a few other villagers with makeshift weapons waited.

Honestly, I was surprised I was able to eat the entire kabab in peace. The fishermen didn’t like that a goblin was in their town, but they could tell I wasn’t something they could beat easily.

“Well, that’s enough of a rest.” I yawned, hopping to my feet. I walked past the fishermen, not feeling even the slightest threat from them. As I walked past the shop from before, I waved at the chef. “Thanks for the kabab!”

“Has the world gone mad?” I heard one of the villagers say as I left, baffled by what they had just seen.

Now then, my next mission. I had to stop the human cities from invading and slaughtering the goblin city. I thought His death would have ended this nonsense, but they were still going forward with it. So now it was up to me to do something, step one… find where the hell it is!

It’s a secret the adventurers wouldn’t share with me, and I was clueless as well. Beelzebub was no help of course, he never was. Even if I tried asking him, there’s no way he would ever answer.

I had taken a map from a low level adventurer, but it was quite useless really. He had only marked the locations he had been to himself, so the goblin capital was not on the thing.

On the edge of the hamlet was a noticeboard with various posters and letters attached, but one of them caught my eye. It read ‘wanted: bandits.’ and the rest contained quest information for adventurers.

I reached up to take the notice, but it was too high up for me. Well, guess I’m jumping. I leapt up to catch the notice, smacking my forehead right into the signboard.

“Ouch…” I hit the ground and stayed there for a moment, rubbing my head.

“Umm, did you want this?” a young woman’s voice reached my ears, and I was handed the notice. I looked up to see a teenage human girl, one of the fisherman's daughters probably, offering me the quest. Oddly, she didn’t seem scared by me.

“Why would you help me, you know what I am, right?” I asked, taking the notice anyways.

“Daddy always said goblins were bad, but you don’t seem bad.” she smiled at me. “You even paid for your food, I was told bad goblins always steal from us.”

“Ya saw that, huh?” I sat up, taking a closer look at the posted quest. I might not know how to reach the goblin city, but when I do find it I’ll need more XP than I have now, so maybe… what the hell am I thinking, why would I take a quest meant for an adventurer, would I even get the reward for it? “Well, thanks.”

I stood up, nodded to the girl, and then headed out of the village with the quest notice in hand. It mentioned an old watchtower they had taken over, so I doubt it would be hard to find them.

-

“You’ve been rather... quiet today, Vi.” Beelzebub slid a piece along the board to a new square. “Still sulking over the loss of a single piece?”

“It totally ruined my plans!” she protested, crossing her arms and huffing. “He was the centerpiece of the raid that would have broken your last hope of defending against me, now it’s all screwed up! Even if I replace him now, he was the perfect fit for that battle, now it’ll come off contrived and anticlimactic!”

“The legendary hero who killed the rebel goblin’s father, it would have been a poetic victory for sure.” Beelzebub continued. “For me.”

“Even with this setback, I won’t let you have your way, Beelzebub!” Vi’s voice raised, not in her usual cackling, but in a genuine rage she hadn’t expressed in centuries. Even the fact that she used his full name, and not that annoying nickname showed how enraged she was towards him. “I will kill you, just like I swore so long ago!”

Vi placed an object on the table before her, and even Beelzebub paused for a moment upon seeing it. Wrapped in a black cloth and tied closed with a white ribbon, it was impossible to say what it was at first glance unless you already knew.

“Are you sure, didn’t you tell me you would never again use ‘that’ piece?” he asked her, his eyes fixated on the sealed package.

“If it means my victory, I will use anything and everything of mine!”

-

“Gox, we need to find that goblin girl, so why are we taking this bandit elimination quest?” Tyrael complained, following shortly behind the lizardman.

“Finding one goblin isn’t so easy, but do you really think such a high level monster won’t defend their home?” he asked, and Tyrael had no response for him. “Our paths will cross again, during the raid, so we must do as he was doing, and level enough to participate.”

“That’s really your plan? Grind to level 10 and hope we run into her during a raid? What if she gets killed before we encounter her, what then?” she asked him.

“I have my doubts about that happening, she seems to increase in power just as an adventurer does, by the day of the raid, she will likely be even stronger.” he responded, stopping at a fork in the road. “I believe the tower is to the east from here.”

They continued down the eastern road, and before long an old, ruined watchtower came into view on their left. This was their target, the quest to eliminate a group of bandits who had taken root in it.

“Gyakk!”

A small, green creature in a red cloak tumbled down a hill from the woods at the side of the road, rolling to a stop in front of the two adventurers. Their bright red hair tied back in a ponytail, a black and red sword on their back…

“Or, we can encounter her by chance, right now.” Gox said, his reptilian face showing no noticeable emotional change.