Shortly after Iron led the brutal slaughter of the goblins, the ice goblins began to flock to the place where they had just been earlier.

―Kiiiik…

The eyes of the white-skinned goblins were filled with anger when they saw the bodies of their tribesmen that had been cruelly killed. Just like what its subordinate had reported, the goblins had died brutally. It seemed like it was the truth. The nasty human pretended to be ordinary and lured them to their deaths. 

These clever monsters also had a bottom line. Even if they were enemies, they swore to not touch their enemies’ children. But the nasty humans used this against them and killed them off. 

―Kiiiik…

The ice goblin leader also wanted to use those nasty methods to kill the humans that crossed their bottom lines. At the same time, they would show these filthy humans that they did not use guerilla warfare because they were weak.

The leader vowed to take revenge as he shouted at its comrades.

―Let’s get revenge for our comrades!

―Let’s give those nasty and filthy humans the same pain they gave to us!

―Let’s show them our greatness!

Hearing their leader’s cry, the fire in the eyes of the ice goblins started to ignite.

The goblins used sorcery to share their emotions with one another. The anger that filled their bodies intertwined and got woven together with their mana which resulted in their power increasing twice.

This sorcery could only be used under special conditions. It was something that could only be triggered if they suffered an injustice or their colleagues were killed outside the laws that they had set in the Winter Mountains. They would burn the souls and the bodies of their dead comrades and use their lingering desire for revenge to temporarily amplify their current strengths. 

As the sorcery took effect, the goblins’ eyes started to turn red while their rationality slowly faded away. Only the leader maintained its sanity as it led the group of goblins forward. 

“They’re coming.”

Corporal Charles reported as he watched the agitated goblin herd furiously rushing towards their location. 

“Get ready.”

The soldiers quickly ran to their positions upon hearing Iron’s words.

They had settled on one of the hills in the Winter Mountains and dug a pit there. The soil dug up had been placed in bags that they used to surround their makeshift camp. They even buried some bombs near the vicinity for added protection. Maintaining this position was essential for them to be able to counter the goblins’ guerilla warfare. 

“Try to stop them from approaching as much as possible. We will have the advantage as long as we can establish this stronghold and keep it.”

“Yes, sir!”

Hearing Iron’s orders, Corporal Charles immediately bowed his head and relayed it to the other soldiers and corporals. 

The goblins, who were adept at hit-and-run tactics, were now fully agitated. And they were now going into an all-out war against them. However, even if this was the case, Iron and the soldiers made sure to occupy the most advantageous terrain.

Despite the records saying that goblins were weak, they were essentially monsters so receiving a few bullets would not kill them at all. So fighting an all-out war against them with their difficult guerilla warfare for no reason at all would definitely turn the situation bad for the nearest guard post.

However, everything would change if they had an overwhelming advantage. Just occupying the most advantageous terrain would change the pattern of war and would give an added boost to their fire power. Even if they wouldn’t die under the barrage of their bullets, they would still be stopped in their tracks if some of them died from getting hit by bombs.

But if they were talking about variables in this war, then the ice goblins’ ice magic was a huge variable. 

“It’s ice magic!”

Corporal Charles hurriedly reported the large chunks of ice that started to fly towards their direction.

Iron stepped forward in annoyance as he stared at the incoming chunks of ice.

Crack!

As soon as he pulled out his sword, the largest chunk of ice had been cut down.

The ice that flew towards them was not ordinary ice but ice created with mana. This meant that the ice would be more sturdy and durable compared to ordinary ice. If his soldiers got hit by such a huge block of ice, he was sure that they would most definitely die.

―So… it’s you.

When one of the goblins stared at Iron and spoke those words in human language, the ice goblins all turned their heads and glared at him. The goblin leader’s eyes even started to turn red bit by bit as it realized that Iron was the human who underhandedly killed its men. 

“Maybe I should have gone for the snow goblins first?” 

Iron felt annoyed as he saw the chunks of ice coming towards them on all sides. 

Snow goblins also used snow magic but they would just be like snow golems, who only threw snowballs, at best. Of course, their mobility was much better than the ice goblins. It was a bit harder to fight against snow goblins that also used guerilla warfare while skiing all over the place but in their current situation where they were stationed in a fixed place, Iron felt that it was much more comfortable to deal with snow goblins than ice goblins. 

“Outpost leader!”

Corporal Charles ran to help as he saw the goblins rushing straight towards Iron. 

“Don’t worry about me and do what you have to do!”

Iron shouted as he concentrated the mana on his sword.

A simple swing of his sword was able to cut down the goblins that rushed crazily towards him. He sent the head of the leading goblin flying with a slash as he continued to parry the attacks of the other goblins.

The goblin that was right behind the leading goblin stopped in a daze as it looked incredulously at the boy in front. It couldn’t believe that the boy’s light mana sword could easily slash through their ice magic sword.

However, the goblins, who were all elites of their tribe, quickly got back to their senses. They firmly believed that they would be able to easily kill such a young and inexperienced boy.

Slash, slash, slash!

Unfortunately, the ice swords that they were proud of had been easily cut into two along with their heads. 

―Bastard, your sword… has mana compressed in it?

Iron just smiled when the goblin leader asked him if he was already in the 4th Stage. 

―Until the very end, you’re still deceiving us! Filthy human!

The ice goblin leader roared as it created dozens of ice shards around its body. Seeing the dozens of ice shards that aimed at him, Iron raised his sword.

“You say it’s filthy… but didn’t you bastards use this method together with your guerilla warfare too?” 

―…human.

“You just got caught because you guys are morons and you’re being beaten right now because you don’t understand. Isn’t the one who suffers an attack in a war the foolish ones?” 

The ice goblin leader fired the ice shards when it heard Iron’s questions. But Iron just cut them one by one while he moved forward and approached the ice goblin leader. However, even though the leader was not a full-fledged wizard, it was still able to create a strong and sturdy ice sword to fight against Iron.

Baaaang!

―Baaaang!

However, its sword was all for naught.

When the goblin leader saw how easily Iron cut off the ice sword in its hands, it immediately stepped back and created an ice wall. It also created dozens of ice shards that aimed and shot at Iron. 

“Clumsy.” 

―Keuk!

Iron swung his sword as he directly approached the dozens of ice shards that were firing straight at him. He also launched his own sword attacks towards the ice goblin leader.

The ice goblin leader couldn’t avoid the dozens of sharp swords that attacked it. After all, Iron’s sword had been swung to perfection thousands if not tens of thousands of times. In the end, it failed to protect itself as it sustained an injury on its shoulder. The ice goblin leader hurriedly launched ice magic towards Iron as it cradled the arm that received the slash from Iron’s sword. 

“Too late.”

―Cough!

Iron opened his mouth as he watched the ice goblin leader vomit out blue blood after being stabbed straight through its stomach. 

“Don’t be too upset. I will send you your comrades soon.” 

―…hu…man…

“I do have one question though.” 

Hearing Iron’s words, the ice goblin leader quickly shut its mouth. It stared at him with hateful eyes. It looked like it was determined to not divulge any important information to this nasty human.

Iron stared at the ice goblin leader. 

He did not know about the other goblins but he was sure that this one would know something. 

Considering that the ice goblins were at the lowest level of the higher-ranked monsters and this one was the leader of this group of monsters, he assumed that it might know something about the current situation in the Winter Mountains. 

“Do you know something about the disappearance of the divine beast?” 

The ice goblin leader smiled at Iron’s question but it did not open its mouth to answer. 

Iron couldn’t help but sigh when he saw the figure of the ice goblin leader. It seemed like it was telling him to find out about it by himself.

These monsters would never tell humans anything. Even the monsters that he had dealt with and killed in his previous life kept their mouths tightly sealed and did not tell him anything important. 

“Is it related to a… dimensional crack?” 

―Who knows…

The dying ice goblin leader laughed merrily at the clueless Iron. 

“It’s clearly related to the disappearance of the divine beast. And it must also be related to a dimensional crack. Am I right?” 

―For a young human being, you’re quite…

Iron’s expression stiffened when the ice goblin leader smiled at him with a look that was clearly telling him that his deductions were definitely plausible. 

―If you’re curious then catch our chief.

Iron’s expression turned complicated as he watched the ice goblin leader take its last breath after leaving those words behind.

Now, he was sure that there was something going on in the Winter Mountains that they were still unaware of. And it seemed like it was also related to what was happening in the entire Northeast. 

‘Something that I did not know of in my past life is happening right now.’

Iron’s expression hardened when he thought that the monster wave in his previous life was not just a simple event. 

“Do I have no choice but to torture the monsters to know more?” 

Iron mumbled these words to himself as he began to kill the ice goblins one after the other. The other soldiers also shot and cut off the heads of the ice goblins as they fought in close combat. 

When the ice goblins saw their leader die, they realized that the situation was not in their favor so they quickly retreated. Iron let go of the retreating ice goblins since they had already suffered enormous damage. Then, he quickly ordered his men to examine the bodies that were left behind.

“There’s none.” 

“Yes?” 

The soldier next to him asked dumbly as if he had just mistaken Iron’s words for something else.

“Nothing.” 

Iron beckoned the soldier to continue what he was doing as they continued to examine the other bodies.

However, there were no traces of contamination that was indicative of a monster wave. In other words, there were no traces of a dimensional crack. However, despite there being no traces of evidence of a dimensional crack, Iron still felt uneasy.

The ice goblins showed a more diverse and extensive ice magic than normal. So, he decided to examine the bodies since he thought that their amplified power had been caused by contamination of polluted mana, a phenomenon that was usually caused by a dimensional crack.

But even after examining all the bodies, there were still no traces of contamination even in their skin and flesh. However, he was sure that they had exhibited the characteristic of a monster wave, albeit only being expressed briefly, just like what was in the records from before.  

“What is it…”

Iron looked through the corpses of the ice goblins seriously.

At first glance, one might think that their enhanced magic powers were thanks to their mana circuit widening from the natural flow of mana but there was some sort of strange energy that he had felt from their amplified ice magic. Especially when he fought the ice goblin leader earlier. He was sure that he felt that strange energy despite it being a bit weak. If he did not have the experience that he had gained in his previous life, he would have definitely ignored it. However, thanks to that experience, he was able to grasp this faint and weak energy.

His uneasiness was even heightened further after hearing the words that the ice goblin leader had left him before its death.

“Is it possible that it’s not a regular dimensional crack?” 

Iron mumbled to himself as he looked at the peak of the Winter Mountains.

It was obvious that the water under the bridge was murky and turbid but Iron was feeling annoyed and restless since he did not know anything about it. For him, there was nothing more annoying than being the only one unaware of the things that were happening around him. 

“If I comb through the Winter Mountains, then I’ll be able to find out about it.” 

After they had finished their first battle in the dangerous Winter Mountains, Iron gave his soldiers a break before beginning the reconnaissance and scouting work around the area. At the same time, they also started infiltrating the snow goblin’s territory.

The silver wolves would not be agitated with just a few ice goblins so they needed to lure in more. They had to draw out various goblin tribes including the ice goblins, the snow goblins and the white goblins. And it wasn’t limited to them alone, even the other monsters in the area had to be stimulated and agitated. 

“I have to find out about it even if I have to make a mess out of the Winter Mountains.” 

Iron clenched his fists as he mumbled to himself. 

A faint figure could be seen appearing from afar. The figure could be seen nodding its head as if it was in approval of the direction that Iron was taking right now.