"Hey, rookie. Still spacing out?"
Lin Mo looked up to see a middle-aged man with coarse skin and deep-set wrinkles.
"Here's your weapon. Hold on to it tight. For a Warrior on the battlefield, losing your weapon is like losing your head."
Lin Mo took the Sword with a numb expression. It was about a meter long, its blade marred by rust spots and stained with dried blood that wouldn't wash away.
He stared blankly at the blood on the Sword, his thoughts in a jumble.
Old Wright patted his shoulder but didn't bother him further.
He understood the rookies' confusion and fear. After all, they weren't soldiers, nor were they battle-hardened Adventurers. If the town's situation hadn't become so dire, the Lord would never have conscripted these greenhorns to hunt Goblins in Loran Forest.
'I just hope this actually works… The number of girls abducted from town has been on the rise. If we let those damn Goblins keep growing stronger, we could end up just like Lager Town did not long ago—completely overrun.'
Shaking his head, he turned and rummaged through the pile of scrap metal that had been sent down, picking out a halfway decent weapon for the next rookie.
"Sigh…"
Lin Mo stared at the Sword in his hand and let out a long sigh as memories flooded back to him.
He was a transmigrator.
In his past life, Lin Mo had no remarkable talents. He endured a decade of arduous studying, got into an Ordinary university, joined an Ordinary company, and lived an Ordinary life.
A meager salary, frequent overtime, a body growing sicker by the day, and his parents' occasional phone calls nagging him to go on blind dates…
Even so, that life seemed far better than his current predicament.
He'd been inexplicably transported to another world. And while his body seemed to have become a few years younger in the process, he was immediately and bewilderingly drafted as a "conscript" to go fight Goblins.
Running wasn't an option. It was a "volunteer" conscription, and now that he was here, trying to back out would be considered disrupting morale. The gleaming blades in the Guards' hands would be quick to teach you a lesson.
On the way to the camp, he'd seen a few who'd defied the order. Some were whipped and dragged here. The ones who resisted too fiercely were made an example of—killed on the spot with a single, clean strike that took off their heads.
Lin Mo's gaze fell to the weapon in his hand.
'The only good news right now,' he thought, 'is probably this line of text that just appeared before my eyes.'
[Broken, Poor-Quality Sword]
Weapon Types: One-Handed Sword
Level: Poor-Quality (Gray)
Introduction: A rusted Broken Sword, so dull it probably couldn't even slice a vegetable. Of course, even when it was brand new, it wasn't much sharper.
'Golden Finger? Or maybe a cheat?'
That's what they were called in the novels he used to read.
Perhaps thanks to this Golden Finger, he had also instinctively mastered the language of this world.
Taking advantage of this, Lin Mo had spent the short time since his arrival eavesdropping and asking simple questions to learn what he could about this world.
First of all, this was a world with Extraordinary Strength.
Talented individuals could train and learn Skills to become "Professionals" and gain immense power. Unfortunately, the vast majority of people lacked such talent or opportunity.
Ordinary people unable to become Professionals could only support themselves through manual labor or by working for wealthy lords. Some, however, chose to live on the edge, becoming Adventurers to fight desperately against Low Level Demons for bounty money.
The pay was nowhere near that of an official Professional, but it was much better than being a laborer. The price, however, was the constant risk of death.
—And that was exactly what he was about to do.
Dealing with the Goblins wasn't a war where you could just send in a large army to wipe them out. In fact, a small place like Roland Town didn't even have an army.
Even if it did, the Goblins were greedy and cruel, but also cunning and cowardly. The moment those green-skinned runts spotted a large human force, they'd scurry back into the depths of the forest, making them impossible to pursue.
And as soon as the army retreated, they would come right back out to plunder supplies and terrorize the locals.
As a border town adjacent to Loran Forest, the people of Roland Town had long ago figured out the best way to deal with these creatures.
That was to form small squads of three to five, just like Adventurers, and act independently. This way, they wouldn't scare off the Goblins, and as long as they weren't outnumbered, their chances of success were decent.
Experienced Adventurers could choose their own teammates to maximize their party's Combat Power, but for unlucky conscripts like them, there wasn't much of a choice.
Lin Mo looked up at the teammates he'd been assigned.
Two scruffy-bearded, middle-aged men were huddled together, muttering complaints.
A boy who looked to be about fifteen or sixteen, head bowed, clutched his Sword tightly and said nothing.
The last was a young man who had gotten his weapon right after him.
The young man was looking around, and when he saw Lin Mo's gaze, he flashed a toothy grin in greeting.
"Hey, man… your clothes look really cool."
His clothes, from his former world, were indeed out of place here. Thankfully, they weren't so bizarre as to get him labeled a suspicious heretic.
When Lin Mo didn't answer, the man sidled closer and studied the clothes. "Really nice," he said with a nod. "How about you let me borrow them?"
Lin Mo sized up the young man. He wasn't tall, with a sallow, gaunt face. He wore old, grimy clothes with several patches on the hem and cuffs.
"Do you know what we're about to do?"
Lin Mo asked in return.
"Go get ourselves killed?"
The young man laughed carelessly. "Whatever. If I stay in town, I'll starve to death sooner or later anyway!"
In peaceful times, you could barely scrape by farming or working for the nobles. But now, with Demons on the rampage stealing grain and destroying fields, even the trade routes are treacherous because of Goblin harassment. Many merchant guilds have temporarily halted business. When the rich can't make money, the poor can't eat.
"Do you know when we leave?"
"How should I know? You'd have to ask Old Wright, though I doubt he'd tell you… Anyway, enough talk. Are you gonna lend me the clothes or not?"
"No."
"Tch."
The young man pouted and sat down off to the side. "Fine. After a Goblin smashes your brains out, I'll just strip the clothes off your corpse."
Lin Mo couldn't be bothered to reply. Since he wasn't getting any more information, he needed to hurry up and study his Golden Finger to figure out how to survive the coming fight.
Recalling the earlier sensation, Lin Mo tried to focus his mind and looked down at himself.
A few seconds later, several lines of transparent text floated before his eyes.
'Just as I thought,' he mused. 'It's not just for items. I can see my own Attributes, too.'
[Name]: Lin Mo
[Profession]: None
[Attributes]:
Strength: 4 (The maximum power that can be exerted)
Agility: 4 (Movement speed and reaction speed)
Constitution: 4 (Life force, Defense Power, and Endurance)
Spirit: 5 (Mental fortitude, Insight, and concentration)
Magic Power: 0 (The power only esteemed Mages possess)
Unsurprisingly, for a modern man who rarely exercised, his Attributes weren't very impressive.
However…
[Skills]:
Level 4 of Slacking Off (99/100): You are accustomed to slacking off at work. When in a group, this skill lowers your presence, reducing the probability of being caught "goofing off."
'There it is!'
Lin Mo's eyes lit up. His dedication to the principle 'A day at work without slacking off is a day wasted' had finally paid off. All his research into the art of slacking without getting caught was about to be put to good use.
This skill might just be the key to his survival!
"Alright rookies, get ready to move out!"
Just as Lin Mo was studying his stats, a burly man in Armor strode over and banged the butt of his Knight's Lance on the ground.
"Those damn Goblins have gotten more and more brazen lately! Now is your chance to make your name and change your life! The Lord has decreed that for this sortie, you'll all have the same standing as Adventurers. Kill a Goblin, get a reward of 100 Copper Coins!"
"YEAH!"
As his words fell, the deathly silent camp suddenly erupted. A spark lit up in the eyes of many, including the two middle-aged men and the young man who'd just tried to get Lin Mo's clothes.
You had to understand, Goblins didn't have any valuable parts, so the reward for killing one was usually just a token amount from the local Lord, a mere 20 copper each.
But now, it had jumped fivefold to 100 copper. That was more than half a month's wages from a normal labor job, and in times like these, there wasn't even any work to be found.
Kill one Goblin, and you could buy a hundred loaves of black bread. You wouldn't have to worry about starving for at least a month!
Amid the cheering crowd, Lin Mo quietly furrowed his brow.
'One hundred copper sounds nice, but for ordinary people with no combat experience, is it really that easy to earn?'