kscans

Chapter 14 - You Monsters are Just Stepping Stones for Me

"...What's with these goblins. They've gotten a little stronger, haven't they?"

Hero Ares clicked his tongue in dissatisfaction. The forest cave, the Hobgoblin's stronghold. A familiar dungeon he had cleared many times in the game. But the scene unfolding before him was clearly different from what he remembered.

Pitfalls. Poison swamps. Collapsing cliffs. The traps were unreasonably placed, and the goblin soldiers used group tactics. Some individuals even wielded fire and lightning magic.

"This ain't the easy game I know. The balance is broken."

But Ares didn't run. There was no need to.

"Well, whatever. The reward for beating the Hobgoblin is crap anyway... I'll put off clearing this place for later."

Ares smiled. His smile held not a shred of heroism.

"On to the next map. I'll wipe out the Lizardman village."

It was a swampy area, filled with damp heat and green miasma. The home of the Lizardmen.

Ares's suddenly appearing sword cut down the Lizardman warriors, scattering blood.

"You lizards! Tremble in your sleep!"

Burnt scales, flying tails, broken spears. As if he were conquering an area in a game, Ares efficiently and ruthlessly destroyed the village.

A Lizardman mother and child tried to flee. They didn't make it.

Inside the burning houses, screams and roars of anger intertwined.

At that moment, in the center of the village, before a giant wooden altar, a Lizardman who appeared to be an elder stood in his way.

"You... state your name."

"It's Ares. Ah, I think my original name was Taiga Nanjo."

"Then remember this... Ares. No matter how much you rampage, this land is watching. Eventually, you will be struck down by Mamoru... a proud warrior of the Hobgoblin tribe."

"Haha, struck down by who? There's no way a filthy little goblin like that can beat me."

"Your arrogance is your greatest weakness. When one called a hero forgets that..."

With those last words, the chieftain Salua was cut down. He collapsed in a spray of blood, and with his eyes fixed on the statue of a god, he quietly breathed his last.

Ares spat out his words.

"Don't lecture me... you all are just stepping stones for me. Nothing more, nothing less."

The Lizardman village burned down with the sunset. Beyond the smoke of blood, Ares's eyes glinted ominously.

"Mamoru? A Hobgoblin with a human-like name. Could it be? No, surely not."

And so, he began to feel a slight interest in the existence of the warrior known as Mamoru of the Hobgoblin tribe.