I Am Not Goblin Slayer
Chapter 56: Abandoned Mine 2

Taking advantage of this time, Gauss’s gaze wandered around the Adventurers Hall.  

He could sense that the number of people in the hall had slightly increased recently, with many new faces.  

The change among the lower-tier adventurers was not the most obvious; the most direct difference was that the number of professional-level adventurers who could access the second floor had also increased somewhat.  

Had the surge in the number of quests around Grayrock Town attracted adventurers from other places?  

After all, Grayrock Town was adjacent to the Emerald Forest, which could rightly be described as a monster kingdom.  

Gauss often heard others in town talking about it; it was said the Emerald Forest was a barrier between the Kingdom of Carlos and the southern non-human territories.  

Deep inside the Emerald Forest lived a diverse range of monstrous species: green dragons, lizardmen, gargoyles, ogres, minotaurs, wyverns, hydras, and many other terrifying creatures.  

Grayrock Town originally served as an outpost stationed on the edge of the Emerald Forest and gradually developed thereafter.  

However, the Emerald Forest seemed relatively stable for many years.  

At least in Gauss’s memory, there had been no news of large-scale wars.  

Retracting his gaze, the other teammates had already chosen their quests.  

“I think this one is good. What do you all think?”  

“Clear out the goblinoid group entrenched in the abandoned mine; their numbers are around twenty.”  

Compared to Gauss’s old friend the Goblin, the goblinoids’ combat strength was even weaker.  

They were a burrowing reptilian humanoid species, oviparous by nature, worshipping dragons and considering it an honor to serve as a dragon’s minions.  

Covered in scales, these goblinoids often claimed to possess a very diluted dragon bloodline.  

Besides serving the strong, goblinoids were naturally excellent diggers and builders, preferring to lurk in various caves and transforming them into living environments suited for themselves.  

Compared to their construction and digging talents, their combat abilities were not outstanding; most goblinoids rarely lived healthily past ten years old. They relied on numerical advantage to fend off predators but often suffered heavy losses because of it.  

Gauss had no objections to the task chosen by his teammates.  

Most goblinoids were about 1.2 meters tall and not very strong in direct combat; the only thing to watch out for was the traps they set up.  

In their team, they had Meva, who was skilled in traps and mechanisms, and Gauss, who had silently learned from Meva over several missions and mastered Mage Hand, a probing magical skill.  

As long as they were cautious, the goblinoids’ traps would not cause too much trouble for the team.  

Gauss could fully utilize Mage Hand’s abilities to inspect suspicious dangerous areas one by one.  

The other teammates probably chose the goblinoid commission for the same reason.  

After confirming the quest, everyone returned to rest and gather their equipment.  

They quickly regrouped at the town entrance.  

Because there were more quests to choose from, everyone could pick ones closer to reduce travel fatigue.  

This mission was no more than half a day’s journey away.  

The quest location was an abandoned mine west of Grayrock Town; the mineral veins had been depleted many years ago.  

This mission was issued by the Grayrock Town Adventurers Guild, which occasionally released monster clearance quests, even in uninhabited areas.  

“Too bad it’s an abandoned mine; otherwise, given goblinoids’ habit of hoarding shiny things, we might have hit the jackpot,” Daphne sighed.  

“If that were the case, the mission wouldn’t be ours—it’d have been taken by others already,” Levin reassured her.  

Many savvy adventurers thought along these lines; in the lower-tier adventurer world, “high-reward” quests were snatched up the fastest.  

Some large teams even hired people to stay in the Adventurers Guild hall to grab high-reward quests immediately. The missions left for others were usually low-yield, at least according to the quest details.  

“That’s true.”  

After walking for several hours, the group arrived at the designated mission location: an abandoned mine whose name had long been forgotten.  

It was just past noon.  

Apart from their team, the mine was eerily silent and deserted.  

Knee-high wormwood grass grew in patches along the roadside.  

The wooden supports at the main mine entrance had collapsed, with severely decayed wood fragments scattered all over the ground.  

Pale green sewage dripped continuously from above the mine entrance.  

The “drip, drip” sound could be heard from far away.  

“This is the place.”  

Gauss noticed fresh soil and stones piled not far from the mine entrance.  

Considering no one lived here, the only ones digging must be the mission targets.  

Master diggers—the goblinoids.  

Wherever they arrived in a cave, they would remodel it to their liking.  

After Levin and the others collected some basic intel, they didn’t act rashly.  

Instead, they moved a bit away to set up camp, rest, and eat to restore strength.  

Unlike all previous missions Gauss had undertaken, this time he needed to venture deep into the cave to fight the goblinoids.  

Compared to the open wilderness, the deep and unknown mine was obviously more dangerous.  

Thin oxygen, cave-ins, falling rocks, lack of light, and easy disorientation were all hidden hazards of the cave environment.  

So, even though the targets were not powerful, the team remained vigilant.  

Careless adventurers rarely survived long in this line of work.  

After fully restoring their strength, Meva and Gauss took the lead to enter the cave for reconnaissance.  

Before entering, Meva sprayed both herself and Gauss with a deodorizing agent.  

This helped suppress their body scents to some degree, avoiding early detection in the confined space.  

Gauss cast an invisible Mage Armor on himself.  

He didn’t cast it on Meva because, first, after using Mage Armor twice consecutively, his magic reserves were running low.  

Second, he hadn’t yet learned to cast it on others.  

Casting on others was much harder than self-casting.  

“Drip, drip.”  

Inside the cave, the environment was dark; they could barely make out their surroundings.  

Fortunately, Gauss had a mental map recording the mine’s layout.  

He didn’t have to worry about getting lost, and with an Agility of six, he could keep pace with Meva.  

The two cautiously explored.  

The mine twisted and turned, and they could distinctly smell a peculiar stench from the goblinoids—a strange odor like rancid mutton fat burning mixed with faint sulfur and rust.  

Meva activated her skills upon entering the mine.  

Therefore, she occasionally stopped to hold her head, easing the discomfort caused by the intensified smell.  

They moved carefully, coordinating with Gauss’s Mage Hand to probe points intermittently.  

Finally, after tens of minutes of careful scouting, Gauss emerged from the cave with a pale-faced Meva.  

“They’re definitely goblinoids, with about twenty adult individuals and a few kids.”  

“They use daggers, pickaxes, and some other wooden weapons. No ranged weapons, but traps are set at several entrances.”  

“The mine’s air flows; there should be hidden passages and ventilation shafts inside.”  

“The layout is complicated. Be careful not to get lost when entering.”  

“Impressive, Meva!” Doyle didn’t hesitate to praise the intelligence officer.  

“No, it’s actually Gauss’s credit,” Meva shook her head and looked at Gauss.  

Besides constantly using Mage Hand to scout, Gauss even led them out of the cave, or else she’d have had to fumble around longer in the complex, dark mine.  

Thinking about Gauss’s claim of being naturally good with directions, she felt a strange sensation, even a bit sour.  

It seemed he was more suited to be a rogue than herself.