Enigma of Sin

Another 12 days passed in relative ease. A few rune beasts had attacked Kayn and Lara, but this was nothing new and all of them weren't any stronger than D-rank. All Kayn had to do to take care of them was shoot a bolt of lightning from his finger. He didn't even stop the horse to go see if there was any loot.

Finally, something interesting happened that made Kayn stop the horse when he was less than two weeks out from Palatine. He happened upon a scene that was quite familiar.

In the middle of the road were dead horses and a tipped over carriage with boxes strewn about. However, this time he had arrived earlier than the last time, there were still people fighting with dozens of goblins.

Without wasting any more time, he started firing Magic Bullets of the wind element towards the goblins. He didn't want to accidentally hit the victims of this goblin attack, so he decided not to use lightning as it was destructive and even being near a bolt strike could injure someone.

Within a minute or two, every goblin on the scene had a hole through their skulls and were lying dead on the ground with blood pouring out of the wounds.

The people there were a mixture of demon races and beastkin, though the demons were the ones fighting while there was only one beastkin who was dressed quite nicely, most likely a merchant with mercenaries or adventurers.

Kayn only wished he could hide Lara inside of the Wanderer's Villa in his soul, but he wasn't allowed to store it in his soul if there was anything currently alive inside. After the people stood there stunned for a second, one of them quickly approached Kayn who was in the middle of riding away already.

"Please wait!" The strongest of the mercenaries quickly caught up to the horse as he was a 2nd stage magic warrior.

Kayn halted the horse's movements before turning to look at the individual that had run up to him. "What can I do for you?"

It wasn't that he was annoyed or anything, but more so that he was in a hurry to finally reach his destination. He was beginning to feel the exhaustion from traveling for so long and he knew it probably wasn't good for Lara's early development since she wasn't allowed to run around and play unless it was during the short break he would take once or twice a week and summon the Villa.

The man with two large horns on his head and red skin gave Kayn a deep bow, "I just wanted to say thank you so much for helping us. I'm sure the merchant we are working for would be more than happy to compensate you for your deeds."

"That's okay, I didn't do it for a reward. I just really don't like goblins. Plus, I could help, so why wouldn't I?"

It took the man a couple of minutes to respond as he was a taken off guard by Kayn's answer, many people wouldn't just run at a horde of goblins, even if they were in the third or fourth stage, not that the leader knew what Kayn's strength was, but he looked very young.

"…is that so? Regardless, my name is Hemsworth. My company and I were tasked with guarding this merchant's shipment. We had heard that there was a goblin nest that had formed in the area, but we never expected for them to be this close to the road."

"A nest you say? Do you know the direction that the goblins came from or where their nest is?" Kayn tried not to let his curiosity show on his face, but rather than avoiding the nest with the information, he was interested so that he could go exterminate them.

"Over to the east there is a small forest, the reports say that they are coming from there. Hopefully you can avoid them when you continue on your way." The leader bowed once again, "Thank you again young man."

After he finished thanking Kayn, he began making his way back to his group that was in the middle of picking up the merchant's wares and placing them back into the cart that they also needed to repair. Unfortunately, with the horses either dead or injured, a few of the mercenaries would have to pull the carts themselves.

Hemsworth watched as Kayn left in the direction that he told him the goblins were located much to his own surprise and worry.

"Hey captain, didn't you tell him that the goblins were that way?" One of the mercenaries asked as he placed items back inside of boxes.

"I did, he must really hate goblins to take that young child in that direction with him." Hemsworth could only shake his head as he went back to his work.

Meanwhile the merchant watched Kayn get further away with a somewhat regretful expression on his face. He was tempted to hire the young man for the remainder of his journey, but alas he would have to make do with his current hires.

…

On Kayn's end, he could see the forest in the distance that was mentioned to him. If he was honest, Kayn was surprised that the goblins had traveled so far out of the forest and into the grassy plain area where they were more likely to be spotted.

As Kayn got closer to the forest, he focused his Mana Sense more on the forest to see if he could spot any goblins near the outskirts, and sure enough there were goblins in groups of 2 to 4 patrolling around.

Not wanting to take Lara any closer to danger, he quickly brought out the Wanderer's Villa and entered inside with her. He had taken one of the empty rooms and made it into a child's play area that didn't have anything dangerous in it if he left her alone, so he dropped her off and went back outside.

The Villa still hadn't finished evolving, so he couldn't change any of the options, but it still had the protection formation active, so he wasn't worried about her safety at all.

Kayn didn't bother to hide his presence and took out a sword he had found in the treasury of the Villa before charging towards the goblins. Before the first patrol group even realized what was happening, Kayn had decapitated all three of them.

'Ah, it feels so good to wield a sword again. Not to mention this sword is amazing!' Kayn thought to himself as he sprinted towards the next group of goblins recalling when he had first found the sword and used Analyze on it.

[Akikani (Legendary): A sword made to be wielded with one hand or two. It has a single edge and is extremely sharp. The sword will increase its potency when the wielder imbues it with the wind element.

-Increases damage by up to 100% if imbued with the wind element.

-Highly durable and extremely sharp. Will self-repair any minor damages, but does require maintenance to retain edge.

-Whirling Tempest (Active Skill): After five consecutive attacks made while imbued with the wind element, this skill will allow the wielder to fire a tornado formed from powerful winds in a cone shape from the tip of the blade. Range of the skill is dependent on the wielder.]

Kayn blazed his way through each and every goblin he came across, quickly causing them to become extinct within the outer edges of the small forest. After making an entire circle around the outskirts and eliminating all of the goblins there, Kayn starting circling deeper and deeper into the forest.

As he arrived at the center area, a large zone with many tents set up could be seen along with hundreds of goblins. Kayn was surprised when upon using Mana Sense he didn't find any captive women.

There were definitely younger goblins, but no women, meaning that the last one must have died upon the most recent birthing. Kayn figured that must have been the reason they ventured so far away from the forest as they needed more females to continue spawning more of their ilk.

Kayn still hadn't used the Akikani's ability yet, but did have the skill available from what he could tell by the feeling the sword was giving off.

As Kayn didn't want to spend all day hunting down goblins, he decided to experiment with the Akikani's ability. He first infused the wind element into it before pointing it with the tip facing the goblin's camp. Afterward, he launched Whirling Tempest forward while also casting Extinction Flames from his left hand to mix into the wind tornado.

The effect was much stronger and much larger than he expected. Within seconds, the area 150 degrees in a cone in front of him was clear of trees, tents, and goblins. Anything that might have been there was now gone.

Kayn waved his arm as he sheathed the Akikani and dispelled any fire that was trying to turn the rest of the forest into bare plain. With one attack, Kayn had essentially reduced the already small forest to a tiny one with a weird empty cone shaped area in the middle.

'Whelp, guess that move is off limits in areas where friendly fire can happen.' Kayn sighed as he made his way back to the Wanderer's Villa to take a small break before continuing to Palatine, he was becoming excited since it wouldn't take much longer before they arrived.