The labyrinth opened only after teasing the flustered Ellie until satisfaction was achieved.
Maybe it was thanks to the new equipment that everything had changed within a day? Or perhaps it was my heightened senses from the new skills?
The Great Forest already had good air quality as a background, but today it felt especially refreshing.
“Sniff, sniff.”
“…I don’t smell like Jonah.”
“If you say it like that, it makes me look dirty! Besides, I didn’t smell Lydia!”
I only picked up the scent of the forest. In Pangrave, which had been a city since it was established, it’s surprisingly hard to catch that smell.
Lydia nodded vaguely and asked.
“By the way, are you really fine not visiting the temple? You said you received a blessing. Even if you don’t intend to become a priest, I heard that people who have received a blessing get a bit of a stipend from the temple.”
“But, that stipend changes depending on what kind of blessing you receive. What I got only enhances my sense of smell, so it’s not exactly a high-level blessing. I don’t want to get involved with the temple for a meager stipend…”
“Why are you avoiding the temple so much, Jonah… Never mind.”
Lydia shook her head as if she was about to say something but then continued after slapping her cheeks.
“So? How far are we going today? The Iron Wolf again?”
“Nope. This time, it’s the Giant Mantis. If possible, I’d also like to challenge a Hobgoblin.”
“…Isn’t that dangerous? I know you got new equipment, but Jonah’s skills haven’t changed that much.”
“Well, I’m confident.”
With a shrug of my shoulders, I grinned.
“I told you, I had a realization. I’ll show you what it is today.”
“…Fine. Either way, with me around, it shouldn’t be too dangerous. Just be careful not to stray too far from my sight, no matter what you do.”
“Will do!”
I grinned and pulled out a map from my pocket. After showing a few times that I could navigate without Lydia’s help, she even handed over the first-floor map.
Unlike before when I just followed Lydia, this time I was leading the way through the complex paths of the Great Forest.
Suddenly, a strange sense of unease hit me, causing me to halt and concentrate.
A faint, irritating stench tickled my nose. As I turned my head towards it, there lay a poorly hidden Goblin trap.
It was probably hiding behind the tree next to the trap.
…Now that I think about it, my improved eyesight feels very noticeable. Even from quite a distance, I could see things clearly as if they were right in front of me.
With the silent footsteps I had gained, I received much more than just powerful strength, quick agility, or a minuscule amount of mana.
It was my senses.
Most of the senses worth calling it that—sight, taste, touch, smell, hearing, and even balance, intuition, and manipulating mana—all had grown to an exceptional level.
Just like how muscle strength grows through exercise, I had gained these heightened senses in an instant that would normally take a long time to develop.
However, I didn’t expect it to be this amazing.
With a grin, I drew my Unicorn Dagger. Quietly, I approached the hidden Goblin while suppressing my presence.
Lydia behind me held her breath, but it didn’t really matter. I had to focus, so I brushed it off.
One step. Another step. I calculated all the angles of how my feet touched the ground, how much force I applied, how to control my breathing, and where the Goblin’s blind spots were.
I was so caught up in the calculations in my head that I barely noticed when I had already ended up behind the Goblin.
Even though I walked through the rustling grass, it hadn’t even noticed me.
After glancing towards Lydia, who was left behind the tree, the Goblin started to chuckle silently with an eager expression.
I was briefly startled by its incredibly ugly face. Without a second thought, I thrust my dagger from behind.
The target: its lungs.
Thrust.
“…Huh?”
“Go, bro?”
The dagger pierced through the Goblin’s flesh as easily as slicing a cake.
Of course, Goblins aren’t a tough species, so they can be pierced through if stabbed hard enough, but still, they have muscles and fat.
I never imagined it would penetrate without any resistance.
The Goblin seemed startled too, frozen in place at the sight of the pure white blade suddenly protruding from its chest.
Well, the stealth effect seems to be indeed formidable, so now I just have to finish off the Goblin…
Thunk.
“?”
I pulled out the dagger, wanting to stab the nape next, but it was too slow; the Goblin had already collapsed, head dropped.
Upon closer inspection, it was already dead. With a face discolored a dark shade.
“…Poison?”
As a matter of course, I didn’t remember applying anything. And since I pierced its lung, not the heart protected by bones, it shouldn’t have died this quickly.
That leaves only one explanation.
“You really are a cursed blade.”
Even though I stabbed deeply, the dagger remained utterly clean, vibrating slightly.
It seemed to either be unpleasant at having bled a maiden’s blood or maybe it was just rejecting my statement.
“No, wait. It was said to react not only to maidens but to evil too.
Even though monsters in the labyrinth do die, they’re the kind that reincarnates by repeating the cycle in the random space of the maze.
But that doesn’t necessarily mean they’re reborn in a new body. To be precise, it’s more like reconstruction.
In essence, their defaults reset to their original trapped state in the maze.
They can age, grow, and live reasonably well while living in the labyrinth, but… when they die, they reset to how they were the first time they were trapped in the maze. That even includes memories.
Of course, their maidenhood status is part of that.
In that sense, while the Hobgoblins formed tribes and built up their power, wandering Goblins are pathetic beta females who can’t find a male.
They have no power, no mates, and their intelligence is relatively lower.
Unless they’re lucky enough to ensnare a less-than-bright adventurer, those wandering Goblins are destined to live their entire lives as maidens.
…I don’t particularly want to know about the maidenheads of such creatures, but, anyway, that’s the setting.
To summarize, the Unicorn Dagger reacted not because it was a maiden but because it was evil; however, monsters aren’t so much evil as they are just a collective of insanity.
Maybe Undead or Demonic beings are regarded as evil, but Goblins are…
“Oh.”
Thinking of Goblins based on the premise that they are evil led me to something.
There used to be a once-removed setting that Goblins called themselves the Lesser Nobles before they became monsters.
Originally, Goblins got their name from other races due to their unique distorted speech and vocal organs.
However, the setting that they referred to themselves as ‘Lesser Nobles’ was simply something pointless that had no reason to appear in the story.
I decided to bury it in my mind since it seemed unnecessary.
“Could it be that was reflected somehow?”
Other than that, I couldn’t find any other reason.
I thought I would need to conduct various experiments on other races with different backstories to figure out the details, so I shouldn’t dwell too deeply on it for now.
What’s important is that the Unicorn Dagger’s special attack works on Goblins.
That’s enough.
I swiftly split open its chest to collect the mana stone and returned to Lydia.
“Lydia! Lydia! How was my stealth? Was there anything lacking? Goblins are usually so dumb they get easily fooled, but other races might not be the same!”
“…Nothing.”
“Huh?”
Lydia’s expression said she didn’t get it, like when she heard that a half-moon bear was a bear not a moon, or that a kiwi bird was a bird not a kiwi.
“If I hadn’t been watching closely, I wouldn’t have noticed you at all. Of course, it’d be different if you were actively radiating your aura, but… who walks around leaking their aura all the time?”
“What? But you said I smell really good. I was worried I might get caught because of the smell. I was even considering a recall prayer to the Goddess if things went south.”
“Let’s not treat the Goddess like the local apple pie lady, and besides, the scent was totally fine. The moment Jonah set their mind to it, even the smell completely vanished.”
“Seriously.”
Well, if it was possible to cover my natural scent with a nice fragrance, then it should naturally also be possible to erase my scent altogether.
I worried less about being rendered useless by a 1-star ability after finally pulling a 4-star skill.
While I exhaled a sigh of relief inwardly, Lydia, with a face much sterner than usual, asked.
“Just what did you show Ellia-senpai that made you so desperate to master your stealth technique? It can’t be so easy to develop such a realization overnight.”
“What did I show? Well… I can tell you, but you can’t go around telling anyone, alright?”
“Okay. I’ll keep it a secret.”
Pretending to zip my lips, Lydia looked unusually serious. Seemingly, she wasn’t so much curious about the incident as she was about what realization I made.
…Now I felt a bit guilty. What I was about to show would not be what Lydia would think.
I rushed to stand in front of Lydia and made a serious face as I formed a ‘V’ with both hands.
“Huh?”
Then I rolled my eyes upwards, opened my mouth slightly, and stuck my tongue out.
“Ahe–”
It was the perfect doubled ahegao.
