Goblins were known as the weakest among the many monsters that could be found in Star Fantasy. Although they were fodder for E and F rankers, they were still a threat to normal people.

However, there was no way a goblin or even an army of them could fight and win against an orc or ogre. Goblins weren't able to use magic which was the primary attack method when fighting orcs. They only used crude weaponry they found off dead bodies of humans or they would craft their own weapons.

The weapons wouldn't be a threat to orcs and ogres, however. That was because both species had thick skin that was tougher than leather armor and they had higher defense than any other type of monster.

"The orcs were slashed to death by a creature that was either using a sword or it had sharp claws. I'm betting on the latter since the lacerations weren't clean cuts. There is also no way that a sword that cut the same area three times." Lucri took out a pen and paper and drew the marks that he saw.

Arnold pondered after hearing Lucri's description.

'Goblins aren't really known for their arm strength. Even if they cut someone, it wouldn't be deep.'

That was why goblins covered their weapons in their fecal matter. This made it possible to incapacitate the target. The feces of goblins were full of bacteria and diseases so it could be poisonous for any living being.

If the monsters died from such wounds then Arnold would've accepted it but it didn't make sense if they were clawed to death and inflicted with such severe wounds.

'I would believe it if it was a hobgoblin since they are stronger than orcs in muscle strength alone…'

But judging by what he heard from the people, the monsters they saw were shorter than the average humans, had big beady eyes and had long ears with an ugly face.

"Shit…I'll need to head inside the forest if I want answers," Arnold said since he couldn't figure out what was going on. "Shouldn't the guild be aware of these kinds of things? If this is a new species then this forest's entire ecosystem will collapse."

"Should we tell the other people?"

"No. Knowing them they probably mistook the monster because they haven't seen a lot of other monsters in their lives before. Even more so for monsters that look similar to goblins."

He could only think of duendes which looked similar to goblins in terms of stature and form. But those monsters weren't in the monster encyclopedia of the game.

"Then if it is a new species, should we record it in a report?" Lucri took out a book from his bag.

"Yes, do that. We can also suck the guild dry using this incident. It's because of their incompetence, after all."

'They should give some of that money to this village too.'

They were the ones who were attacked by it, after all. It was only right for the guild to offer compensation for their inaction.

It was required for the Adventurer Guild to send out their scouts once a month to avoid situations like these. Turns out that they hadn't done such a thing in a few years. Not in this region, at least.

'That Flord bastard better be ready for heaps of complaints.'

"I'll go and find out what miss Norn and miss Lilia knows. I'll be back later." Before leaving Lucri lowered his head and said in a whisper. "…P-Please do not rummage in my things without permission…"

"Ah, sorry…"

Lucri closed the door afterwards.

"I hope he isn't thinking of disbanding our party because of this. I really need him for the future."

◇◇

The forest was quiet when the sun was at its highest. Maybe it was because there weren't any monsters left anymore because of the actions of this strange monster that attacked the village.

'No, they said that there were more than one. We'll have to be careful.'

The purpose of their march to the forest wasn't to immediately start a fight with the monsters. That would be absolutely ridiculous because they had no information with what they were dealing with.

That was why Arnold proposed they do recon of the area. Half of the hunters stayed in the village while the other half accompanied Lucri and Arnold.

The total of people amounted to twenty.

"I want everyone to tell me if you see anything move in these woods. Those corpses of orcs were still fresh so that means that the goblin or whatever it is was here just a few hours ago." Arnold gazed at every one of them. "Chances are that the monsters killed those orcs because they were nearing their den. The same would happen to us if we're not vigilant."

The hunters nodded at his words. Gut was right next to Arnold as they walked.

"You seem to know something we don't. Mind telling us what it is?"

Arnold glanced at the man silently for a few seconds.

"Have you ever seen monsters from the underworld before?"

"Sure I have. I was in duty for twenty years so I've seen a lot of shit." Gut frowned as if he remembered some unpleasant things. "When you're tasked with protecting a fortress outside the nation then you're bound to see some weird shit. That was especially the case when the Luthial Kingdom fell. Angels rained down from the sky and golden dust that could melt steel fell down on the battlefield. People's flesh burned off as if they were butter."

'It seems that even this country's people were involved in the war of the Theocracy.'

The Theocracy had illegally marched their troops past the empire's borders without permission. This was why the empire showed such hostility and weariness after the Undead Queen asked to establish peace between their respective nations.

"The Theocracy always summons some horrendous monsters to fight for them in war but they're nothing compared to the underworld."

"I see. Then have you seen such monsters?"

Arnold wanted to laugh at the question. Of course he had. He was a veteran player of "Star Fantasy". His guild had protected the duke's city many times in the past. A few of those times monsters from the underworld would attack.

It was called a [Demon Wave].

Endless portals leading to the underworld would appear near high concentrated demonic energy areas. Those portals would allow the monsters to creep out of the uninhabitable world of the demon king.

Arnold had a theory that there might've been a portal somewhere in this forest. It was pure conjecture since an unknown monster, capable of slaughtering orcs with their claws alone, appeared. There weren't any monsters the size of goblins that could fight an orc and walk out alive.

That only applied to this world.

But the underworld or known as the demon world had such calamities.

The only questions were what sort of monster was it and why did it appear?

"We should stop here for now and come back later." Arnold lifted his arm to signal everyone to stop.

"Why?" asked one of the hunters.

"These monsters might be able to surround us if we go any further than this. So let's turn back and—"

Before he could finish his words, the sound of flesh being slashed resonated followed by a scream.

"!!!"

Someone's head flew in the air after being cut off.

"Aaaaah!!"

"Shit! He's dead!"

"What the hell is this!?"

Arnold hurriedly looked towards the person who was pointing at a certain something. He managed to see it despite the low light of the sun.

The monster was the size of a 10 year old child. It had long limbs, even longer than its own legs. It also had long ears, rows upon rows of teeth and big beady eyes.

It looked exactly like a goblin if one looked once but this monster was actually something else.

A demon known as an Imp.

"That's not a goblin…." Arnold shouted, "Get back!"

The creature spat out a purple goo the moment he shouted. It managed to hit one of the hunters in the face.

"!!!" The man's entire face sizzled and burned right off until only his skull remained. He collapsed lifelessly.

"Aaaaah!" Lucri screamed in terror when he saw the man's eyeball fall out of the eye socket. It looked right at him as if the man was still alive.

"Gigigigi!" The creature cackled as it approached the terrified humans.

It had claws the length of a short sword and black skin like charred chicken. It also radiated a disgusting smell that made Arnold have the urge to vomit once he inhaled it.

The monster suddenly stopped as it looked at the man called Arnold.

'Huh?'

Its eyes widened in terror(?) and it began retreating backwards before breaking into a sprint.

'Eh? Why did it suddenly run away?' Arnold didn't have time to have these thoughts since he had to kill it immediately.

"Lucri, shoot it with a spell!" Arnold shouted at his Lucri.

"Okay!" Lucri held up his staff and released his mana. The magic sheet on his staff began glowing before a giant magic circle appeared in mid-air.

"5th rank magic-[Magic Spears]!"

Three spears of pure mana manifested out of the magic circle and shot towards the creature that was running for its life.

"Giiiiiiii!" Its scream was swallowed up by the explosion caused by the mana spears that consumed its entire body.

"O-One spell…."

"Amazing…"

"They truly are A-rankers…"

The people looked at Lucri in awe. Said person blushed and lowered his staff.

Gut ran up to Arnold and held his shoulders as his pupils shook.

"Y-You said those weren't goblins earlier, right?"

Arnold closed his eyes and nodded.

"Then…what were they…?"

"Let us go back to the village chief's house first. I will explain this situation to everyone."

All the members of the hunter group nodded.

Part 2

Imps were spirits from the underworld that gathered when an area is filled with demonic energy. Demons and undead alike survive on spiritual essence so when there is an area with large quantities of it, you're sure to find these monsters in that area.

That was why undead skeletons manifested in areas where large amounts of spiritual essence—not the good kind—formed.

"..."

The entire room was filled with silence after everyone heard Nova's explanation.

"….I see…So this means that we're in bigger trouble." The old village chief leaned back on his chair as his mouth curled downwards.

"T-Then…why did you kill the monster back then?" Lilia spoke up after no one else did. "Wouldn't it have been better to follow it to where its den was?"

"That makes sense."

"Yeah then we could've exterminated their whole lot."

Murmurs of agreement resounded in the room.

The handsome young man with silver hair smiled wryly.

"That, I cannot allow."

"Why!?"

"Because…" Nova looked at everyone. "When an Imp confronts an opponent stronger than itself then the obvious solution would be to gather its comrades and gang up on the opponent. That opponent being me. Perhaps it sensed the disparity between us and ran away."

"Ah, is that why it ran after looking at us?" Gut interjected.

"Maybe. I'm not sure since it was only looking at me," Nova shrugged, "In any case, the Imp would run back to its den and gather all its comrades. What do you think will happen next?"

A shiver ran up Lilia's spine when she realized what he meant.

"They…will attack us just like before… As an angry mob."

Nova nodded.

"That's correct. As of now this quest has officially become a subjugation raid. No outsiders will join us on this subjugation."

"But what about the people we lost!? Because of those bastards, I lost my wife!" Gut shouted in anger.

Nova replied without batting an eye. "Either they are being used as a food source or they are… being used as breeding machines. Females who can't be breeding machines end up as the former."

The entire room went silent as if those words threw a bucket of cold water over everyone.

"Why are all of you so surprised? These are demons we're talking about. Did you seriously think they would just kill people painlessly?"

Silence.

"I wouldn't be surprised if they're making fashionable clothes out of the skin of children."

'That's horrible…' Lilia gripped her clothes as she imagined how humans were being treated as playthings.

Nova looked at everyone with cold eyes.

"Give up trying to save your loved ones. Even if they aren't being tortured, the mental damage will be huge. Those people were normal villagers just yesterday but that won't be the case after the things you've seen."

Nova gestured at someone with his eyes. The person nodded and ran outside. He returned a minute later.

"What is that?"

The man brought in something covered in a blanket. It smelled foul as if it was in the sewers or poop pit.

"Take a look at this." Nova lifted the blanket.

"Aaaaaah---!"

That scream came out of Lilia's throat when she saw the thing under the blanket. She fell down on the ground and moved backwards.

"Eeek!"

"*vomit*"

"W-What the fuck!?"

The people screamed, vomited and cowered when they saw the monster before their eyes.

It was the Imp the magician boy killed earlier.

"…So this is the thing that managed to do so much damage to our village." The village chief was calm unlike everyone else.

Gut was also holding on, albeit barely. His face was pale with fear.

Perhaps it was because they could see it in clear light now. Their last meeting was in the forest where there was little light because of the trees.

"Take a look at this." Nova unsheathed his sword and cut off one of the Imp's claws which were longer than Lilia's entire forearm. She got goosebumps on her body.

'S-Scary.'

Nova used the claw to cut into his armour.

"This is armour made from a wyvern's scales yet it is meaningless against the sharpness of this monster's claws."

Indeed, the claw was slicing through his armour as if it was butter being cut by a hot knife. There was no resistance from the armour whatsoever.

"This is what a monster from the underworld is capable of." Nova threw the claw to the side. "I will need someone to transport this thing to the town's guild branch while we take care of those monsters."

Lilia looked around and saw that many of them had expressions of fear and anxiety on their faces. It seemed that no one was willing to.

"I…I will go." Gut stepped forward and said so. "If I cannot fight with you then I shall benefit the village in some other way."

"I am grateful." Nova bowed, "The Guild will send reinforcements so we don't need to necessarily kill them all. We'll also need to get that portal under control, wherever it is."

When the reinforcements arrive then the village would be treated as a monster zone. A monster zone referred to a place where a new monster was first discovered. This world didn't have a lot of information about Imps and other demons since it was only present in the game. Until now anyway.

"Then I will head out immediately." Nova stood up.

The people seemed uneasy. Nightfall had already come so there was a high possibility that the monsters would attack again. Thus, Lilia expressed worriedly:

"Is, is that really fine? To go alone at night? We know the two of you are A-rankers but…"

Nova smiled, it was a smile that made Lilia feel assured that they would be safe as long as he was here.

"We're going alone exactly because we're A-rankers. These monsters won't pose that much of a threat." Nova looked at the old man. "Make sure everyone stays inside their houses. If even one of those things makes it in the village then it's over."

The old man nodded.

"Let's go, Lucri."

"Yes, sir!" His companion replied enthusiastically as if they were going on a field trip.

No one dared to stop them since they were so confident. Everyone could only gaze at their backs as they left.