Having flipped over the fallen goblin, he retrieved the knife embedded in its forehead and the bolt stuck in its shoulder.
The bolt could be reused as long as it wasn't damaged.
He then pulled out the hand axe attached to his backpack.
-Thunk!
With a dull thud, the goblin's chest split open.
He needed to check for any possible mana stone.
Goblins dropped mana stones from their hearts.
But as expected, there was none.
For F-Rank monsters, getting even one mana stone out of ten kills was considered good luck.
He had hoped, but without much expectation.
Moving to another spot, he split open the chest of the first goblin he'd killed.
"Bingo."
He found a translucent mana stone about the size of a knuckle.
'Am I on a roll today?'
His mood lifted.
Goblin gacha success.
One mana stone from two goblins was a profitable haul.
He examined the corpses the goblins had been eating.
There were two human bodies, their torsos already largely consumed.
Both were men.
Their young faces were frozen in expressions of mingled pain and terror.
'They're just kids.'
In this line of work, you saw bodies until you were sick of them.
This was nothing special.
He checked their scattered gear.
It didn't look like high-quality stuff.
They seemed like rookie Non-Awakened Hunters who'd just gotten their certifications.
Non-Awakened Hunter certification was granted after two years of military service or supporter experience, or completion of Hunter Academy.
No monster detector in sight.
It wasn't something a beginner could easily obtain unless they were loaded.
That's why rookies usually joined guilds or parties to do grunt work.
With some luck, they might have succeeded in farming once or twice.
But a goblin ambush right in front of you was hard for even veterans to handle.
That's why people carried monster detectors.
He spotted the victims' backpacks rolling around a bit farther away.
Inside were fist-sized blue fruits and vivid green leaves.
Roca Fruits and Nogr Herbs.
They were the main source of income for Non-Awakened Hunters in the Songdo Gate.
He took them out and stuffed them into his own backpack.
He saw an Ilseong Corp tablet stamped with the Ilseong logo but ignored it.
Tablets could fetch money, but they often led to complications, so it was better to pass.
Nothing else valuable caught his eye.
Next up were the goblin claws.
They weren't expensive, but they were compact and good for pocket money.
As he headed toward the goblin corpses to cut off the claws...
⚙ SYSTEM NOTIFICATION ⚙[Monster detected.] [11 o'clock direction, 45 meters. F-Rank monster.] [One bio-response.]
"What?"
Encountering monsters continuously from the rear like this, not even from the front, wasn't a good sign.
He worried if a dimensional rift had opened nearby.
⚙ SYSTEM NOTIFICATION ⚙[Monster approaching.] [30 meters.]
The distance closed in an instant.
A single monster was rapidly approaching his current position.
Was there an F-Rank monster that fast?
The red dot on the map was hurtling toward him at incredible speed.
It would arrive in seconds.
With the instincts of a seasoned hunter, he felt an inexplicable wariness and quickly concealed himself in the underbrush.
-Grrr....
At that moment, the monster appeared.
It looked similar to a goblin.
But with a height of over two meters and a massively bulked-up upper body, it exuded an overwhelming presence incomparable to a regular goblin.
It was a Giant Goblin, one he'd never seen before.
He'd been in this business a long time, but he'd never heard or seen of a goblin mutant like this.
The Giant Goblin lumbered around before, apparently hungry, burying its face in the corpses of the goblins he'd killed and starting to tear into them.
-Crunch.
The sound of bones crumbling under its sturdy teeth echoed.
He hesitated.
Should he slip away?
Or hunt it?
If he fled, he had to do it without being noticed.
He didn't know the monster's detection range, but if it spotted him while escaping, he'd be forced into close combat.
For a Non-Awakened Hunter, close combat was a last resort.
His superior senses granted combat abilities beyond a normal person's, but even so, that bulk made him reluctant to go melee.
Regular goblins could be smashed with bare fists, but this one looked anything but ordinary in terms of physical prowess.
It could turn into a fight not worth having.
Looking at that physique, he couldn't assume he could outrun and shake it off.
It might lead to an even more dangerous situation.
If he hunted it, he could seize the initiative and fight on favorable terms.
"It's definitely F-Rank?"
Just to be sure, he asked Suni.
⚙ SYSTEM NOTIFICATION ⚙[Yes. F-Rank monster.]
"Any other monsters around?"
⚙ SYSTEM NOTIFICATION ⚙[None detected within 50-meter radius.]
Not D-Rank.
If it were D-Rank, he'd run without looking back, but F-Rank was doable.
It looked stronger than a regular goblin, but still just an F-Rank monster.
And only one.
F-Rank, single target, with first strike advantage.
No way he could lose.
But that bulk demanded caution; no room for complacency.
He prepared for battle carefully.
Silently reloading the crossbow, he pulled out the assembled spear from his backpack and quickly put it together.
Being modular, it wasn't durable—meant solely for throwing.
Still devouring the corpses, the Giant Goblin remained oblivious as he quietly aimed the crossbow.
The red dot of the scope targeted the Giant Goblin's crown.
-Twang.
-Thud.
It hit the Giant Goblin's head dead-on.
The monster, mid-feast, froze instantly.
'A normal F-Rank would end there.'
Still, he didn't let his guard down.
Quickly reloading the crossbow, he observed its status.
-Grrr.
With a low beastly growl, the Giant Goblin raised its head.
Their eyes met as it turned.
It looked unharmed at first, making him think he'd missed, but the bolt lodged obliquely in its skull, dangling, proved otherwise.
His wariness spiked; he felt his muscles tense.
He swiftly aimed the loaded crossbow and fired.
-Thud.
This time, it sank into the eye with a dull sound.
The Giant Goblin's head snapped back from the impact, staggering—or so it seemed—before it kicked off the ground like a spring.
-Kraaang!!
He'd anticipated speed from its approach, but it exceeded expectations.
Not the speed of an F-Rank monster.
Crisis sharpened his senses.
His thoughts accelerated.
'Too late.'
The charging monster appeared in slow motion.
But he was slower.
He should have reacted faster.
Despite his vigilance, the monster's speed far outstripped his predictions.
A massive claw slashed at him.
In the slowed time, he twisted his body as much as possible to evade.
The tip of the Giant Goblin's claw narrowly grazed his contorted form.
"Shit!"
His arm was about to get caught.
He perceived it, but his body couldn't keep up.
-Scrrch!
The Combat Suit's shield scraped noisily.
Simultaneously, a burning pain flared in his right arm.
He felt how much duller his body had become by taking an attack he would have dodged before.
He barely rolled aside from the monster's charge.
⚙ SYSTEM NOTIFICATION ⚙[Suit right arm damaged.] [Right arm mana shield lost.] [Suit energy remaining: 33%.]
Suni's warning chimed.
The suit's arm section was torn, and a peek revealed it bruised bright red.
'Damn... it didn't just graze; it nearly took it off.'
The injury wasn't severe.
But without the Combat Suit, his arm would have been gone.
The Combat Suit's mana gauge read 33%.
A huge 30% chunk of suit energy had been depleted in one hit.
'This much from one blow?'
'And it's F-Rank?'
The Combat Suit was protected by a mana-based shield.
An F-Rank monster's attack power couldn't pierce the suit until the mana was fully depleted.
In fact, F-Rank attacks typically couldn't even dent the shield by 10%.
Yet this Giant Goblin had breached the shield and torn the suit—that wasn't normal.
At least D-Rank level attack power.
But the bolts embedding confirmed it was F-Rank.
A D-Rank wouldn't have taken the bolts at all.
The Giant Goblin's attack power was lethal.
'One more hit and I'm done.'
He needed to boost his reaction speed.
He pushed his focus to the limit, accelerating his thoughts.
A familiar headache from long absence throbbed.
The charging monster came into view.
Sharp claws slashed again.
Predicting the trajectory in advance with heightened reaction, he evaded.
Even that made his muscles scream.
Barely dodging, he thrust his jungle knife into its side.
Dark red blood sprayed.
Simultaneously rolling to his spear, he grabbed it.
The Giant Goblin seemed furious at its elusive prey.
Gripping the spear's butt end, he hurled it with all his might.
-Whoosh!
Cleaving the air, it embedded in the monster's abdomen.
-Kek!
The force sent the monster tumbling onto its rear.
He drew and threw his dagger too.
-Thunk.
The dagger lodged in its left chest.
Yet the Giant Goblin staggered to its feet.