Chapter 48 …
The moment he lowered his fist, a ghostlike message popped up.
—Why, Master?
Judging only by Jihad’s innocent, wide-eyed expression, the message didn’t match him at all.
‘Did I see that wrong?’
For a split second, Dohyun even doubted his own eyes—the scene looked that natural.
Jihad seemed so calm that Dohyun would’ve believed it if someone said his loyalty had gone up.
Even after rubbing his eyes, the message remained unchanged.
Just in case, Dohyun raised his fist again—
Flinch.
[Loyalty increases by +1.]
Jihad’s body trembled for a brief moment, and his loyalty rose again.
Lower.
[Loyalty decreases by –1.]
And the moment the fist went down, the loyalty dropped like a ghost.
At this absurd situation, something burst out of Dohyun’s throat on its own.
“…What kind of crazy kid is this…?”
—M-Master! I’ll go pick up the items!
Sensing the chill in the air, Jihad hurried off to collect the loot, and the situation ended just like that.
Even his frantic retreat was ridiculous enough—but what was even more absurd was the cheerful ding that followed as his loyalty increased again.
Unable to hold it in, Dohyun let out a hollow laugh.
‘Is this the Opportunist trait?’
In many ways, it truly was a Guardian trait worthy of being called legendary.
No wonder it took hundreds of beatings before the guy gave up the idea of backstabbing…
Still, the loyalty had risen by one in the end, and he was obedient enough, so Dohyun decided to let it slide and sighed.
‘Well… he does listen.’
Like most RPGs, God of All Seasons required players to manually pick up items.
Special rewards or achievement rewards were automatically granted as exceptions, but normally you had to loot them yourself.
In parties, once items were picked up, they were distributed in order based on contribution…
‘I was wondering if there was a pet function—this worked out nicely.’
It was probably for realism, but honestly, it was pretty annoying.
So getting an excellent pet in this situation was welcome news. And he wasn’t exaggerating—it really was excellent.
Whoosh—shuk shuk—
[Trait: Quick Hands activates.]
[Obtained Giant Spider Fang.]
[Obtained Forest Red Goblin Leather.]
…
“…?”
True to the name Quick Hands, the junk items were collected at an incredible speed.
Maybe because he was small, Jihad moved nimbly and swept everything up. Watching him, Dohyun finally understood why goblins were often portrayed as thieves in fantasy.
‘He might be more useful than I thought.’
At that moment, Dohyun had gained a truly outstanding auto-pet.
* * *
The efficiency of the auto-pet exceeded expectations.
Slash—
[You have defeated Forest Blue Goblin.]
“Jihad.”
—Yeah!
Shuk—
[Trait: Quick Hands activates.]
[Obtained Forest Blue Goblin Leather.]
All Dohyun had to do was call Jihad after killing monsters, and the loot gathered itself. He could focus purely on hunting without worrying about drops.
Picking up items in bulk was fine once or twice, but repeated over time, it inevitably consumed a lot of time.
But leaving them behind? Once they piled up, that was money… a painful loss.
[You have defeated Forest Red Goblin.]
[You have defeated Giant Centipede.]
Shuk—shuk—
[Obtained Giant Centipede Fragment.]
[Obtained Forest Red Goblin Claw.]
But now?
Without any worries, Dohyun could just charge forward and blow up monsters, while Jihad scooped everything up faster than anyone.
Considering Dohyun’s already high hunting speed, the collection rate was downright insane.
“Hey, be honest. Aren’t you a thief, not a shaman?”
—Comparing me to some lowly thief?! Isn’t that too much, Master?!
“I mean, it doesn’t make sense. Why are your hands so fast?”
—K-khem… I am a bit fast. Among shamans, there’s probably no one faster than me at casting!
Maybe because he liked the praise, Jihad puffed out his chest with a smug ahem. Normally it would’ve been annoying—but this time, Dohyun agreed.
He had just discovered Jihad’s unexpected talent.
‘Is Quick Hands actually an amazing trait?’
It didn’t just speed up magic casting—it seemed to speed up everything involving the hands.
At that level, there would definitely be strong demand.
Thanks to that, hunting continued smoothly, but his level still didn’t rise.
‘How has it not gone up even once? It’s way slower than I expected.’
There were no more high-EXP hunting quests.
Grinding in town would probably be the same story, and at this rate, who knew how many hours pure hunting would take?
He still had two levels left until the graduation level—an unexpected obstacle.
No wonder people joked that EXP requirements doubled after level 20.
“Sss… If only I could take down a boss. Even the elite mobs haven’t respawned yet…”
Field bosses were off the table for now…
Party dungeons were a hassle and awkward, so in times like this, nothing beat elite monsters.
Just like dungeons occasionally spawned elites, field hunting zones also had elite monsters besides bosses.
One kill wouldn’t level him up, but it was better than wiping several packs of normal mobs—perfect bonus EXP.
The problem was that those guys only appeared in specific zones at specific times.
‘For the western forest, it was usually 12:00, 18:00, and 21:00, right?’
Exactly three times a day.
There were tons of users, but only three respawns, so getting a chance to hunt one was like picking a star from the sky.
Even if the rewards weren’t amazing, the EXP was juicy, which meant players were swarming for them.
‘Still two levels to go… I might have to look into dungeons after all.’
Everyone he met in Raven had been troublemakers…
Since Dohyun had to hide that he was an All-Master, he preferred to avoid parties whenever possible—but at this rate, it might take all day.
Just as the scales were tipping toward compromise—
—Hm? Elite mobs? You mean those elite guys, Master?
Jihad’s sudden voice snapped Dohyun out of his thoughts.
He’d heard the guy had been in hiding for hundreds of years.
Still, being a former boss, maybe he knew something about elite monsters. It was surprising—but plausible—so Dohyun wasn’t too impressed.
“Yeah. Harder to see than stars right now.”
He planned to brush it off with a casual reply.
If not for what Jihad said next.
—If it’s those guys, I know where they are.
“…What?”
Dohyun’s head snapped toward him.
Meeting his gaze, Jihad tilted his head as if he genuinely didn’t understand.
—You mean the tribe’s warriors, right? Why can’t you find them? Except for the exiled ones, they always just stay put.
“…Exiled? Stay put?”
—Yeah. Otherwise they never leave their tribe.
“Wait a second.”
…If that was true—
No, before that—how did this guy even know that?
Jihad answered coolly and shrugged.
—Of course I know, Master. I used to rule this forest. What in the forest wouldn’t I know? Unless the territory itself moved, they should still be there.
“My god.”
—Hm?
“You… you’re more capable than I thought?”
—Keh-hem! You’re finally recognizing it, Master. Want me to take you there right now?
Dohyun nodded vigorously.
For the first time, the guy actually looked cool.
* * *
Forest Goblin Warriors.
Any user living in Raven knew of this elite monster.
They were warriors like the Mutant Goblin Warriors Dohyun had suffered against in Arde—and monsters everyone hoped to encounter.
There was EXP, sure—but more than that, the rewards were the real draw.
‘They drop the downgraded Warrior Set.’
Compared to the Mutant Goblin Warrior set, the stats and grade were lower, but the level requirement was higher, so the performance was still solid.
Since the effects weren’t limited to goblins, considering the next city, it was practically considered semi-graduation gear.
On top of that, since they were hard to encounter, the drop rate was quite high.
No wonder the spawn times always had lines of players packed in.
But the respawning Forest Goblin Warriors had one strange characteristic.
[Forest Red Goblin Warrior]
Title: Elite Monster
Type: Goblin
Trait: Warrior
Description: A great goblin warrior from the Red Tribe.
Only the greatest fighters of the tribe can bear the title of Warrior. Known for superb greatswordsmanship and brutality.
[Forest Blue Goblin Warrior]
Title: Elite Monster
Type: Goblin
Trait: Warrior
Description: A great goblin warrior from the Blue Tribe.
Only the greatest fighters of the tribe can bear the title of Warrior. Known for heavy swordsmanship and high stamina.
Red tribe warrior or blue tribe warrior.
Which one appeared was completely random.
There was no special rule—just pure RNG between the two.
Sometimes, rarely, both would appear at the same time.
“Total gamble.”
Because of this, users called it a coin flip.
Since parties were the norm here, the Red and Blue Goblin Warriors each favored different party strengths, so the outcome was left to luck.
The Blue Goblin Warrior had extremely high HP and regeneration, requiring heavy DPS.
The Red Goblin Warrior demanded a solid tank to hold aggro.
That’s why players hunting warriors usually formed the most standard textbook party.
‘If you have tank, DPS, and healer, you’re fine no matter what spawns.’
It might not be the fastest clear, but it prevented losses.
That way, even if two spawned, they could handle it easily.
‘I heard some people even use this gamble to tell their daily fortune.’
If they guessed Blue or Red correctly, their day would go well. If they predicted both spawning… apparently that meant jackpot luck.
Weird rumors popped up occasionally in the community—but only a handful of players actually did that.
Dohyun had done some silly things too, but not that silly.
—So, Master. Those guys, right?
“Yeah. That’s them.”
Leaving the proud Jihad behind, Dohyun swallowed hard.
‘Jackpot.’
He answered coolly for the sake of dignity—but internally, he was stunned.
How could he not be?
Kirik! Kiriruk!
Kuruk! Keruk!
‘How many are there?’
He had assumed Jihad knew the location of a single warrior.
Instead, the warriors were gathered in a pack.
Just from what he could see at a distance—five of them.
He was certain there were more deeper inside.
[Warriors’ Habitat]
[You have discovered the hidden field ‘Warriors’ Habitat’ for the first time.]
[First discovery bonus granted.]
[If you succeed in the first clear upon first encounter, boss-related equipment is guaranteed to drop.]
[EXP +20%]
[Drop Rate +20%]
It was a hidden field boldly named Warriors’ Habitat.
