I whirl around, my eyes falling instantly on the being standing behind me. Simel? Is that—

No, it’s just some commander-looking goblin in a hood, pointing at me. Whew, that really scared me! Not being able to smell some goblins is really starting to mess with me. I wonder what this guy is trying to accomplish, though? I almost wish I could see his face just so I could savour it once I kill him.

His finger, still pointing at me, trembles.

I cross the distance between us in one stride, grabbing a hold of his throat as casually as one might pick up a soda bottle from a countertop. Since every goblin I’ve met so far is only barely at the height of my chest, it’s no difficulty at all to lift him into the air by one hand. Sometimes, I remember how this wasn’t something I could do just a year back. Heck, if I’d just tried, I probably would’ve broken my arm, haha!

The goblin commander in my grip starts to struggle, his legs kicking, hands grasping at my arm in some pathetic attempt to escape. Just choking him a little harder is enough to stop this, though, and after a second or two, his hands fall limply to his side. Great success! Though, not seeing the light fade from his eyes feels a bit unsatisfying. I do have a spare hand, so I might as well take a peek under the hood, here…

…

—Simel?!

My hand instantly retreats and Simel—my friend, my good, good friend—clatters down to the floor like a dropped ragdoll, arms and legs in a big disorganised heap. What? What? What is happening? Why is he—? I fall down to my knees, scraping him up into my arms. His head is all floppy. That’s bad. That’s bad. Alive people shouldn’t have floppy heads. Grabbing hold of his head, I try to hold it in place. His neck isn’t broken, is it? No, it’s not broken, it doesn’t smell right, he smells okay, and his breathing is…

I press the side of my head against his chest. I can’t hear anything. Damn it. Damn it. That’s bad.

Why didn’t he say something? If he’d just said something like, I don’t know, Hello there my good friend Ho-Jae! this wouldn’t have happened! Damn it, you… Well, I can’t fault him, m—maybe he just didn’t recognise me, I mean, goblins are pretty similar to me as a human, they all look kind of the same, so maybe Simel also has that same thing, that most humans look the same to him, and I’m also covered in a lot of blood, so it’s not like he did it with any ill intent, I must have just surprised him, that’s all, and then I started doing, um, that before he had time to say something like, I don’t know, Hello there my good friend Ho-Jae! which would easily have defused the situation, but now he’s like this, and, and, and—!

A raspy breath claws its way through his throat. Deep inside his chest, I can hear something give a weak thump.

H—he’s alive! Oh, thank God, I was just—I was so certain that he’d…

Not that it’s, um… important what almost happened. It didn’t happen, so now it’s fine. He’s okay. He’s alright. Oh, God, Simel…

I press him close to me. For a while—I’m not sure how long, I wasn’t keeping track—I just hold him close to my chest. Tightly. It probably wasn’t needed in pure survival terms, but it made me feel better, and besides, when you’ve almost… been in a bad situation, isn’t it good to wake up in the arms of a friend? That’s what I think. Why, if I was almost in a bad situation, and everything went black, and I was then to wake up, I would quite like to wake up in the arms of a—

Simel twitches. My thoughts come to a standstill and I stare down at him with bated breath. Slowly, gently, his eyes flutter open.

Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.

His eyes meet mine. I smile down at him.

“Hi,” I say.

For some weird reason, his eyes roll back in his skull and he goes unconscious again.

H—hey, Simel, snap out of it! Stay with me here!

Damn it, maybe he still doesn’t recognise me? My face is totally covered in blood and soot, so maybe that isn’t so strange… I’d best clean up. But not here, and not with Simel in this state. Goblins don’t usually like to look at corpses of their own species, so that might also be what spooked him. Holding him to my chest, I stand up, carrying him in a slightly ironic princess carry. I’ll need to use my arms, though, so with some tinkering, I’m able to put him on my back in a piggy carry. Now, then.

My eye catches the glint shining off of the crown on top of the random guy’s head. Mmmmh. That’s just too good to pass up.

Before I leave the tent, I inconspicuously grab the crown and pop it into my inventory.

Exiting, I remember the fact that I hate this place. I hope Simel will be okay, even in the harsh heat. Just to keep him cool, I bend down and grab the lukewarm heart from a nearby body before squeezing it on top of his head. He won’t like it, but it’ll keep him cool for the moment being. When I was running at my top speed, I got here in just a few minutes, but with Simel on my back…

I feel a rumble in the air and freeze in place. That better not be—

Looking up, I find that it is, in fact, it. Dark storm clouds are gathering high above, swirling and foaming like a sky whirlpool. Within only a few minutes, the ashfall will begin.

I look up at my back, where Simel’s head hangs low. I don’t know what level he is, but it won’t be enough to withstand the ashes.

…This is quite the pickle.

Removing one of the snake skins from my inventory, I tie it around both Simel and myself, affixing him to my back. This way, I should be able to do at least some quadruped running. Getting down on all fours, I start sprinting with all I have. I get around five steps in before the straps loosen to the point where Simel almost gets thrown clear off. Grumbling, I reluctantly tighten the skin before taking an upright position. This is my only choice, but I still need to be quick about it.

The desert turns darker and darker with each step I take towards the round mountain. Soon, it’s as dark as night, and I can smell the soot forming in the skies.

“GRRROUUUUUUUU”

…Ah. Hello there, old friend.

Heh, can this day get any better?

Standing still is no use at this point. It’s already noticed me. These things are also pretty dumb, because it doesn’t hide in caves when the sky goes dark like basically every other creature. It just doesn’t care, which means that right now, I don’t have much of a choice but to fight. I’m not fast enough to run by it. I can’t even put down Simel or he’ll get burnt by the soot.

I tighten the hide keeping myself and Simel close. This is all I can do.

The woolly drake bucks onto its hind legs, raising its heavy claws high. “GRRROOUUUUUUUUUUU” it roars, and just as it attacks me, so too do I attack it.

Predicting its simple, reptilian brain, I easily dodge out of the way of a powerful strike from its right front paw, just in time to also leap over a swipe of the tail that it probably thought was very clever. With its tail stretched out, it gives me enough time to jump onto its back. With Simel on top of me, I can’t afford to use my normal strategy.

The woolly drake howls and arches back onto its hind legs, stretching its long neck around to snap at me. This is exactly what I wanted. Grabbing two fistfuls of its hair, I sling down to the front of its neck, where I stab my hand into the exposed skin of its underside. I’m able to carve out a pretty deep wound, but it swipes at me just as I’m about to hit any vital arteries, and since a hit from this angle would mean Simel getting hurt, I have no choice but to jump off his neck, simultaneously angling my body so that the strike that would otherwise have hit Simel instead simply gouges out the flesh of my chest, snapping a few of my ribs like matchsticks.

Simel makes some movement on my back and I almost get too distracted to dodge the jaws thrusting at me. I try to leap away, but apparently it just barely got a hold of my left thigh.

With my feet off the ground, I’m unable to resist as the drake snaps its neck, tossing me high into the air. I soar for just a second or two, right above the wide-open jaws of the beast. But instead of stupidly panicking or trying to escape, I embrace this flashing red weak point that it has so kindly presented to me, and when I fall down, I helpfully thrust my clawed hand into the back of its throat, piercing out a hole as I do. The drake, startled, clamps its jaws shut, but it isn’t enough to fully amputate my arm, and with my arm still in its throat, there’s no way I wouldn’t take the chance to tear out its tongue.

Finally, with this, the woolly drake realises that it’s fighting a losing battle, opting to simply spit me out. Not that I’ll allow it to get rid of me so easily, of course. Hooking my legs around its throat, I stab my hand into the same hole I made just a minute earlier, and this time, I won’t let myself get thrown off. I dig and I dig and I dig and I dig and after only a few seconds, I finally find that beating hose of blood, which I then easily pull out, biting in half as I do. Blood sprays me from tip to toe and I leap off of the throat and land a few paces away.

The woolly drake staggers for one second, and then two, until it finally collapses fully.

<[Level Up]>

Strength has increased by 2.

Stamina has increased by 3.

Magic Power has increased by 1.

Burn Resistance has increased by 1.

Cold Resistance has increased by 1.

Stab has increased by 1.>