Chapter 20: Goat of Doom

Exitra opened his status window.

“My Spirit Power is around 2,200 right now, right? Watch closely.”

Exitra summoned the Spirit of Wood.

Then, he gave it a command to move the tree.

[Sound of tree roots shifting.]

As the ground rumbled, one of the tree roots finally emerged above the surface.

And then…

“You saw that, right?”

[Whoa…]

—[He used 1,000 Spirit Power just to pull out a single root?]

—[That’s peak inefficiency.]

“The roots are buried deep in the ground. You need that much force to pull them out.”

This was exactly why Exitra had been cutting the trees.

The roots were embedded too deeply to extract easily.

Pulling them out was no simple task.

“This is why I cut them down. Cutting is easier than pulling, right?”

With a quick explanation, Exitra continued the work.

He rested to recover his Spirit Power, then went back to chopping trees—repeating the cycle.

***

By sunset, he had finally managed to cut down and transport 50 trees into the village.

[Quest ‘Lack of Lumber’ has been cleared.]

[You have gained 5 points.]

[Achievement Unlocked: ‘Skilled Lumberjack!’]

He cleared the quest.

And with the points he earned, he invested them back into Spirit Power.

After allocating his stat points, Exitra looked at the others.

“Good work, everyone.”

“Th-Thank you… Hngh…”

“I-It’s… too much… Uuugh…”

Loading 50 trees onto wagons was far from easy.

The five residents who had followed him looked completely worn out.

They had already taken off their shirts, and their entire bodies were drenched in sweat.

“Thanks for the help.”

“Huff… huff… N-No problem…”

“W-We’re the ones who should be grateful… Uuurgh…”

— [Those poor residents…]

— [They look absolutely exhausted…]

— [They’re definitely gonna be sore tomorrow, LOL.]

— [They’re gonna need pain relief patches all over, haha.]

— [Man! For the price of a patch, just throw in a few coins and get them a hot bowl of gukbap!]

— [Ugh, not this gukbap guy again. So annoying.]

***

“Good job, everyone.”

Exitra summoned Undine and cleaned their bodies.

As expected from a Water Spirit, not a drop of moisture was left afterward—their skin became smooth and fresh.

Undine’s water also had healing properties,

So it would likely reduce the muscle soreness they’d feel the next day.

“Ahhh! That’s refreshing! Thank you so much!”

“I felt so sticky from the sweat, but it’s all gone in an instant!”

“Good.”

Exitra turned his head.

There stood Alfredo, completely drained.

“Is he… dead?”

— [He died standing.]

— [No way… I can’t feel Alfredo’s spiritual pressure anymore…]

— [Look at that blank expression… he’s adorable…]

— [Looks like he’s wiped out, hahaha.]

“Alfredo.”

“…What is it…”

His eyes had lost all energy.

Today, Alfredo had managed to chop down 13 trees.

All with that tiny dagger of his.

It was an incredible achievement.

Of course, Exitra had done the rest himself, but still.

“Want me to help you too?”

Alfredo’s eyes shook violently.

He had just watched the villagers transform from sweaty messes to clean and refreshed in seconds.

Their exhausted faces had instantly brightened.

It whispered to him like a devil’s temptation.

But—

Alfredo clenched his teeth.

“I’m fine…”

He staggered toward the lord’s castle.

That’s when—

Grab!

Someone suddenly grabbed Alfredo’s arm.

When he turned to see who it was, his eyes widened in shock.

“F-Father?”

“Alfredo, well done.”

Raiders Brain appeared.

The viewers were stunned.

— [Whoa, why is Brain here?!]

— [Doesn’t he usually disappear after naming his successor?]

— [Yeah, I thought he only showed up early on to give advice. Once the inheritance ceremony is over, he doesn’t appear again.]

— [Exactly. Even if you go looking for him, he’s always “out on a trip” or gives some random excuse. You never see him again.]

Brain’s role was to appoint the official successor during the heir competition.

After that, he practically vanished—even if someone wanted to see him, they couldn’t.

But now, Brain had left the lord’s castle himself.

This was a first.

“W-Why are you here…?”

“I happened to overhear something. So, you chopped wood for the residents?”

“T-That is…”

Brain’s sharp gaze scanned Alfredo from head to toe.

His body was soaked in sweat.

The arm Brain had grabbed was trembling slightly.

A faint smile appeared at the corner of his lips.

“Well done, Alfredo.”

“Exitra, would you clean this boy up as well?”

“Understood.”

Exitra summoned Undine and cleaned Alfredo up.

He initially resisted, but maybe because Brain was there, this time, Alfredo didn’t refuse.

“Much better. You look presentable.”

“And seeing you put in effort for the people… I’m proud of you.”

“I-I didn’t do it for the people… I was just training… and it happened… along the way…”

Seeing Alfredo’s attitude, a faint smile tugged at the corners of Brain’s lips.

“I see. Alright then, go inside and get some rest. You’ve worked hard.”

“A-Ah, no, not at all. Then… I’ll be going now…”

Alfredo had a dazed expression on his face.

That was because he had never been praised before—not even once.

Yet Brain had just complimented him.

Coming from someone so stingy with praise, that was a big deal.

— [Did… Brain just give praise?]

— [Was he always like that?]

— [That’s weird… This isn’t the Brain I know!]

— [W-Who are you, and what did you do with the real one?!]

The viewers were just as baffled.

After all, they had never seen this side of Brain before.

“Exitra.”

“Yes?”

“You worked hard too.”

“It was nothing.”

“And… thank you.”

Brain looked at Exitra.

His first impression had changed a little.

He’d softened—quite a bit, actually.

His tone, his gaze, and even his voice had all become gentler.

Ah.

It seemed that seeing Alfredo by Exitra’s side during the heir competition, and watching the brothers work together to repair the territory, had stirred something in him.

Of course, this had all been part of Exitra’s plan from the beginning.

“It’s really nothing. We’re brothers, after all.”

Brain’s smile deepened at that.

“Brothers… Yes, being brothers is a wonderful thing. Alright, I’ll be heading inside now.”

“Okay.”

Brain nodded and turned to walk back toward the castle.

Exitra quietly watched his retreating back.

‘Everything’s going smoothly.’

— [Wow… Brain, giving compliments?]

— [Unbelievable…]

— [That smile—I’ve never seen it before!!]

“Haha, you guys are seeing this for the first time too, right? It’s my first time as well. He was scary at first, but now… he seems kind of okay.”

— [Ooooh]

— [I thought he was just a cold city guy, but he’s actually warm on the inside.]

— [That’s not my Brain… Something’s not right…]

“Alright then~ Time to get back to work!”

Exitra turned to the massive pile of lumber stacked in the center of the territory.

Fifty trees.

That was quite a lot.

“First, I’ve gotta process all that.”

You couldn’t use the logs as they were.

They had to be processed into usable materials.

“Ray.”

“Yes?”

“Is there anyone in the territory who knows about construction or anything like that?”

“No, not that I’m aware of.”

“Really?”

“Yes.”

“Haa…”

He couldn’t help but sigh.

Not that he’d expected much to begin with.

He had only asked on the off-chance, just in case.

“Is there seriously nothing here?”

— [There was. But not anymore.]

— [No hunters, no lumberjacks. What do they have?]

— [Truly a bottom-tier territory!]

— [??: What do we even have here?]

— [??: Everything—except the things we don’t.]

It was a sigh-inducing situation.

The territory’s condition was the worst, and so were its people.

They had nothing.

“Tsk. Even spirits can’t help with this.”

They couldn’t just slap together some rushed repairs.

If they were going to do it, they had to do it right the first time.

Otherwise, they’d just run into the same problems again.

“No cutting corners on construction.”

— [Exactly.]

— [Shoddy construction… smh]

I mean, there was a story on TV today about some shoddy construction that caused a house to suddenly collapse and kill someone…

— [Shoddy construction is absolutely not okay!]

— [Is it true that in China they use bamboo instead of steel for apartments?]

— [I saw that in the news too LOL]

“What if your house wasn’t even safe to live in? You’ve got to find a proper expert.”

“Then we’ll need to outsource to someone from outside the territory.”

“Exactly.”

“But… we don’t have enough money. With our current funds, it’s just not possible…”

The territory had some money.

But nowhere near enough to commission a request from the Builders’ Guild.

“Hmm… We need money. What should I do?”

There were a few ways to earn money.

One was hunting.

If you hunted monsters, you could sometimes get gold.

And if you sold the monster corpses to merchants, that could earn gold too.

But…

“That would take way too long.”

—[True. Hunting monsters is kinda tedious…]

—[And low-level monster corpses don’t sell for much anyway…]

Monster corpses weren’t worth much.

If he wanted to earn enough for the Builders’ Guild, he’d have to spend at least a full week just hunting.

“Then…”

[InfoBroker has donated ₩1,000.]

<There are a few valuables in the lord’s castle storage that can be sold. No matter how bad the territory is, there are at least 2–3 items worth selling. Selling those to secure early funds isn’t a bad idea.>

— [Ah! Right.]

— [I did that too in my first playthrough. Sold some gems and got my starting capital.]

“Yeah, I know about those. But I’m not planning to sell them yet.”

—[Why not?]

“If I sell them now, I’ll get a bad price. Later, they’ll be worth at least a million gold—but right now, they’d go for maybe 200,000.”

— [Ooooh]

— [I got about that much too.]

— [Still, 200,000 gold is a decent amount early on, isn’t it?]

The viewers were divided.

200,000 gold was definitely a useful sum in the early stages.

But it felt like such a waste.

‘You don’t sell a million-gold item for 200,000 just because you’re in a rush.’

He wanted to avoid losses whenever possible.

And if he sold to the black market dealer he knew, he might even get 2 million gold.

Of course, it would depend on the item—but the point was, he could get more.

So there was no need to take a loss.

‘I’ll have to check what’s in there later.’

“Then what should I do…?”

As he was deep in thought—

***

In the background, the wild boar meat was being fully processed and sorted.

They could probably have a nice meat party tonight, using the wood they’d gathered.

“Ray.”

“Yes?”

“For tonight—”

He was about to give Ray instructions when—

Boom! Boom!

The ground shook violently as something thundered toward them.

And then—

KA-RRAAAASH!!

With a massive sound, the castle wall shattered and collapsed.

“The—The wall!”

Someone had delivered a final blow to the wall that was barely holding together.

And through the broken wall—

A huge, black-furred creature appeared.

“That’s…”

The citizens of the territory stared in horror.

“A Giant Black Mountain Goat!!”

[Emergency Quest: ‘Attack of the Giant Black Mountain Goat’ has been generated. Do you accept? (Y/N)]

[Giant Black Mountain Goat Attack]

[Description: A starving giant black mountain goat has come looking for food and stumbled upon the territory. If left alone, it could reduce the entire place to rubble. Hurry and take it down before it’s too late.]

[Success Conditions: Defeat the Giant Black Mountain Goat]

[Success Reward: 30 Points]

[Failure: Triggers follow-up quest, ‘Rebuilding the Shattered Territory]

— [Whoa!! This is crazy!]

— [The giant black goat spawns here?!]

— [Seriously, how far does Exitra’s bad luck go?!]

— [If it were me, I’d rage-quit right now.]

Ding~

— [Oh no, is this fate messing with you again?!]

‘Don’t call this fate’s joke. That just makes it weirder.’

“Ugh…”

The Giant Black Mountain Goat.

A monster that had only a 1% chance of appearing early in the game.

That probability had been calculated by a streamer who loved crunching these numbers—after dozens of attempts and viewer submissions.

It was an absurdly rare encounter.

Even if you wanted to see it, it almost never showed up.

— [May misfortune bring you blessings!]

— [This really is the Misfortune Broadcast now!]

— [Let’s double down! Double misfortune!!]

— [LOLOLOL]