I’ve Changed My Job From [Sage] to [Thief]

C21: The Goblin Treasure (7)

Meanwhile, in the outer perimeter of the forest the shouts of adventurers rang out incessantly.

“Damn it! Why are there so many goblins out here?”

“Hey, we need some help here!”

“Somebody…Aah!”

More than 100 goblins emerged from the forest and suddenly attacked the adventurers.

The adventurers present were lower-ranking adventurers of Iron and Stone rank. Even lower-ranked adventurers would not be defeated by one or two goblins, but when over a hundred of them attacked at the same time, it was impossible to deal with them.

At first, they managed to maintain a balance, but gradually the violence of numbers pushed them into a corner, and the battle line began to collapse. More than half of the adventurers had already been killed by the goblins, or had abandoned their friends and fled.

“Kagehiko! I can’t stay here! I’m running away!”

“Be careful.”

An acquaintance of his turned his back to the forest and ran away. As he watched, Kagehiko tilted his head, lost in thought.

If there are this many goblins, it means a higher species was born. There are so many goblins right next to the royal capital. Didn’t anyone noticed until they multiplied like this?

“It’s kind of tricky. The number of goblins increased rapidly. I feel like I’ve seen this before…”

“Keeeee!”

“Second rank acceleration, yes.”

“Squeal?”

Kagehiko uses support magic to increase his speed and avoid the goblin’s attack. He continued to slash the goblins with his sword as he passed them.

“Aahhhh!”

“It’s a hob! There’s a hobgoblin!”

“Hmm?”

The adventurers, who were barely fighting, screamed. Kagehiko looked up and saw that enemy reinforcements were about to appear from the forest. A green demon as tall as a grown man emerged from the forest. It was a hobgoblin, an evolved species of goblin.

“Geeeaaaaah!”

“Aaahhh!”

“Move! Get out of here!”

As many as 20 hobgoblins attacked. The adventurers, who had been struggling against the goblins, had no chance. None of the adventurers were willing to stay and fight, and the lower-ranking adventurers were running for their lives.

“Hobgoblins, an evolved form of goblins…yes, evolution! The Stone of Evolution.”

Finally remembering what he wanted, Kagehiko forgot about the situation and shouted. The massive outbreak of goblins that he had encountered when he was in the heroic party was due to an item created by the demon tribe.

“Well, it looks like this is where the Phantom Thief comes in.”

Kagehiko took out a silver mask from his item box and put it on his face. All the adventurers on the outskirts of the forest were either running away or had turned into corpses. Kagehiko was the only one left, and he was already surrounded by a crowd of goblins.

“Gah, gah, gah!”

“Gah, gah, gah!”

The goblins surrounding Kagehiko did not immediately attack him, but were laughing happily. It seems that they planned to torture Kagehiko to death.

“Too bad. It’s Phantom Thief time from here on out. I’m sorry to interrupt your fun.”

The Phantom Thief Shadow said in a mocking tone and opened his hands. Grasping the vast amount of magic power gathered in his palms, he immediately activated his magic.

“5th Rank Magic [Ice Formation]”

The huge amount of magic power released was transformed into cold air of absolute zero. With Shadow at the center, a radius of several hundred meters was transformed into a world of ice.

“Geez…”

Every single one of the 100+ goblins and 20 hobgoblins that were on the perimeter of the forest transformed into ice statues.

As far as general knowledge of magic in this world is concerned, the highest level of magic that can be invoked by an individual is the 4th rank. Fifth rank magic is a strategic level of magic that can be activated by multiple wizards working together. There are probably no more than five people in the world who can activate this magic without reciting it.

“Oops. Sorry.”

I stepped on the corpse of an adventurer who happened to be at my feet. The already frozen corpse crumbled into fragile pieces of ice. Unaware that it was the remains of an adventurer he knew, Shadow smiled at the goblin-infested forest.

“It’s time to work.”

With that, he used his magic to fly through the trees and deeper into the forest.