Lord: Starting from a Goblin Nest

”Lightning Bolt, Aive, Lightning Bolt!”

Ron rolled behind the wreckage of a carriage. The already-rickety carriage was instantly torn to shreds by the Scorpion-tailed Lion. Ron quickly shouted to guide Aive.

He had calculated this escape route. The others were positioned to be out of the way, making it the perfect spot for an indiscriminate Lightning Bolt to be unleashed!

”But what about you... Ugh, forget it! I don’t care anymore!” Aive shifted her tower shield aside. The newly embedded Gemstone orb on her chest erupted with electricity, and a concentrated bolt of lightning roared out, instantly engulfing the Scorpion-tailed Lion.

”AARGH?”

In its panic, the Scorpion-tailed Lion was so frantic it forgot how to speak the Common Language. ’Don’t these people even spare their own comrades?!’

’To use such powerful Magic so recklessly, that human would be... Where is that human?!’

The Scorpion-tailed Lion shrieked in agony amidst the crackling electricity, but when it turned its head to look, it couldn’t see the human at all!

”Feeling stupid now?” Ron’s voice came from above the Scorpion-tailed Lion. At some point, he had leaped high into the air, easily avoiding the baptism of lightning!

”Jumping Technique!” Victoria felt her heart skip a beat. ’Can the Jumping Technique even be used like that?!’

”ROAR! You cunning flea!” After the lightning dissipated, although half the scales on the Scorpion-tailed Lion’s body were scorched, it hadn’t lost its will to fight. ”You’re in the air now! Let’s see you dodge this!”

On its tail, the stingers that had just been shot bare instantly grew back and launched in a volley toward Ron above!

At this distance and from this position, the human had no way to dodge!

”Shelter Magic!” Victoria chanted softly. An invisible barrier immediately enveloped Ron in mid-air. Under the influence of the Holy Power, the Scorpion-tailed Lion’s stingers were forced to swerve, embedding themselves completely in Aive’s tower shield.

She was the second person in the squad who knew a bit about the habits of Scorpion-tailed Lions, so she was well aware that the monster could regenerate its twenty-four tail stingers.

Furthermore, this ability normally required a sufficient period of rest to activate naturally. By forcing it like this, the creature wouldn’t be able to use it again anytime soon.

”What...” The Scorpion-tailed Lion was dumbfounded. Although it could use the Common Language to communicate with other creatures, its intelligence was still limited. This level of teamwork was already relatively complex for it to comprehend.

And just as it watched Ron land completely unharmed, the Gemstone on that ”half-person’s” chest lit up once again!

’Is that a Caster?! A tin-can Caster?’

The Scorpion-tailed Lion launched the last valiant charge of its life, but the Lightning Bolts Aive unleashed seemed endless. Between it and the few morsels of living flesh, there seemed to lie an insurmountable, bottomless abyss.

Electric arcs danced wildly and bolts of lightning writhed like serpents. When Aive had exhausted the last charge in the Gemstone, the Scorpion-tailed Lion breathed out a final wisp of green smoke.

The rain began to taper off. The charred, rigid corpse of the Scorpion-tailed Lion fell onto the smoldering ground, which was emitting wisps of white smoke. There had been some wild grass here, but after six consecutive Lightning Bolts, the land in their path looked as if it had been plowed, the very soil cooked through.

”I haven’t used it since that day. Even if it only charges once a day, it would have been full by now.” Aive walked up and kicked the Scorpion-tailed Lion’s corpse. ”Didn’t see that coming, did you!”

”Someone who can cast Lightning Bolt six times in a row would have to be at least a Caster capable of fourth-circle Magic,” Ron said, panting slightly with his hands on his knees. ”It should be more surprised that such a powerful Mage would need six wide-area spells to kill it.”

It was a bit of overkill.

”I’m not a Caster, so how could I produce that much power?” Aive said nonchalantly. ”If you’re going to put it that way, you should have been the one to use it, and I should have been the bait.”

”If it hadn’t seen me as a frail Caster, it wouldn’t have pursued me so relentlessly,” Ron said with a smile. ”Looks like the rain is about to stop. Let’s clear the area and go tell Sulina what happened here.”

”It’s a shame the monster’s hide and scales are all scorched,” Sera said, walking over to inspect the Scorpion-tailed Lion’s body. ”Otherwise, could this pelt have been sold for some money?”

”Don’t be fooled by the fragrant smell now. Normally, a Scorpion-tailed Lion’s hide is unbearably putrid; even scavengers give it a wide berth,” Victoria said. ”Among Magic Creatures, the Scorpion-tailed Lion’s pelt is arguably in the least valuable category.”

”Of course, that’s *among* Magic Creatures, so selling it for a few dozen Gold Coins would still be no problem.”

Sera, who had been feeling a bit better, immediately started to feel regretful again. Back in her tribe, a pelt like this was a rare and valuable item that could be used for many things.

Even if sold to a traveling merchant, a complete hide could be exchanged for a large quantity of supplies. It was a real shame for it to be scorched like this.

”Don’t be discouraged,” Delaford said, trying to console her with a grin. ”Didn’t you hear them? These are social creatures, so maybe we’ll run into them again! And when we do, it’ll be a whole pack!”

”I’d rather we didn’t,” Victoria said, moving between the broken carriage frames. ”Don’t just stand there, come and help clean up this mess!”

The Scorpion-tailed Lion had no interest in treasures or coins, so as the group cleaned up the battlefield, they managed to find quite a few scattered coins and some valuables.

When they returned what little they had salvaged to Sulina and the others, the three merchants were stunned, staring at each other speechlessly for a long time.

”Generally speaking,” a short, stout human merchant gulped, ”we don’t expect Adventurers to help us recover lost items like this.”

”Unless there’s a specific target, they’ll recover the one item you care about most and pretend not to see the rest as they pocket it for themselves.” The slightly thinner merchant was also pleasantly surprised.

”As for the guards and the like, you can’t even hope for that much—they’ll just tell you they didn’t find anything and then demand payment for their services.”

”Even though what you recovered isn’t worth much, you’ve truly surprised us!” Sulina thanked them profusely, completely oblivious to the fact that the expressions on the faces of a certain former guard and a certain Adventurer in their group were growing increasingly sour.

’Are we those kinds of people?!’

”Unfortunately, we’re penniless right now, and we’ve lost all our goods,” Sulina said with regret. ”We really don’t have anything to offer as a reward...”

”That’s not necessary. If we were expecting an immediate reward, we wouldn’t have saved you in the first place.” Ron gave a slight smile. ”However, I would like you to take a look—do you still plan to transport this lumber to Cloud Port?”

”If possible, and if this timber is still usable, I’m prepared to buy what we’ve salvaged.”