The Most Powerful Witch in History

“H-Here’s your card…”
The receptionist handed me the issued card with a face that still couldn’t believe it. Her hand was even trembling slightly, as if she was nervous.

“Thanks.”
I carefully received the bronze-colored card from her with a word of gratitude.

“…”
I had expected quite a cool design since it was called an adventurer card, but I felt a bit disappointed as it looked no different from a real-world driver’s license.

“…So, about the quest?”
After roughly shoving the card into my pocket, I immediately asked about the high-level quest, which was my original purpose. The receptionist then pulled out a stack of documents from under the desk and started flipping through them.

“Just a moment…”
The receptionist skimmed through the papers with seemingly practiced hand movements. Soon after, she placed a single sheet of paper in front of me.

“Right now, this is the only high-level quest available.”
“…”
A quest paper with three red skull pictures drawn on it, indicating the level of danger. I picked up the paper and slowly looked it over.

“…Goblin extermination in the northern mine.”
The quest content was nothing special, just exterminating the goblin horde that had occupied the northern mine of the Village of Beginnings. My brow automatically furrowed upon seeing this content.

Originally, goblin extermination missions were famous as one of the three major newbie quests along with herb gathering and slime hunting, so why was it suddenly appearing as a high-level quest?

“…Why is something like goblin extermination a high-level quest?”
“Ah, well…”
When I asked with a tone of incomprehension, the receptionist lady showed a serious expression for the first time. She answered my question in a heavy voice.

“It seems there might be something much stronger than goblins in the mine besides the goblins.”
“…”
“Three high-ranking adventurers who left this morning taking this quest lightly haven’t returned yet…”

The receptionist said that while on the surface it was goblin extermination, there seemed to be something much stronger than goblins inside the mine.

“Hmm.”
Certainly, high-ranking adventurers would be at least over level 200, so they wouldn’t have been defeated by mere goblins that are only level 20-30 at most.
As she said, it seemed certain that there was something, at least something over level 300.

“…I like it.”
“Pardon?”
“I’ll accept this quest.”
“Ah, no, wait, by yourself? Not with a party?”
“Yes.”
“No, you should go with at least 3 people…!”
“I prefer going alone.”
“…”

An unknown monster in the mine – curious about its true identity, I accepted the quest with a faint smile. Then a red hologram screen appeared gently in front of me.

Content: Exterminate goblins in the northern mine
Details: Exterminate the goblins occupying the abandoned northern mine and uncover the identity of the unknown being in the darkness!
Difficulty: Hard
Reward: 1900 EXP + 660 silver coins

“…”
The hologram notification screen indicated that this quest’s difficulty was ‘Hard’, the third out of Easy, Normal, Hard, and Nightmare, suggesting it wouldn’t be easy at all.

Still, for me who had been doing only ‘Nightmare’ difficulty quests, there didn’t seem to be much difference between Easy and Hard. If anything, I felt more excited.

The reward of 1900 experience points wasn’t bad either.

“I’ll be back by tomorrow morning.”
“I clearly told you to form a party before going. I won’t be responsible for what happens now…”
“Don’t worry.”

Leaving behind the receptionist who had become sulky after her warning was completely ignored, I left the guild office with light steps to solve my first quest.

“The northern mine, huh.”
The so-called ‘Old Mine’ located in the northern region of Gragu Forest. Usually, it served as a mini-dungeon where only mobs like goblins and slimes appeared, but occasionally, ‘Nightmare’ difficulty quests would be issued as events.

In my newbie days, there was no scarier place than that…

“If you leave now, you won’t be able to enter the village until dawn!”
“…It’s fine.”

I had arrived at the village checkpoint before I knew it. The guards warned that if I left now, with night approaching, I wouldn’t be able to enter the village until the next day. But I coolly nodded and ignored their warning, stepping into the night forest.

-Grrrr….
-Brrrr….

“…”
Perhaps because it was night time when monsters ran rampant, Gragu Forest was also filled with incomparably more monsters than during the day.

From level 20 wild bears to level 50 giant centipedes, various monsters were popping out everywhere, obstructing my path.

“This is annoying as hell.”
I couldn’t deal with each and every mob that didn’t even give experience points, so I trudged towards the northern mine with a barrier up.

-Gwaaaaargh!
-Thud.
-Grrrrrr!
-Thud.
-#%^?^?
-Thud.

“…”
Walking while listening to the pathetic sounds of monsters bouncing off my barrier as if it were music, I eventually arrived at the old northern mine. An eerie energy could be felt creeping out from the entrance of the mine bathed in moonlight.

“Flash.”
Activating the ‘Flash’ skill essential for exploring dark places, I entered the mine interior where goblins were likely to be swarming.

“…”
The strong smell of coal remnants stung my nose. The mine interior was quite spacious, with pickaxes and wooden boxes scattered here and there.

-Kyaaak!

“…!”
And, befitting the quest content, a goblin immediately jumped out. It rushed at me, swinging a crude dagger made of animal bones or the like.

LV. 107

“A goblin level 107…?”
I narrowed my eyes seeing the letters above the head of the monster jumping high. A goblin level of 107, when the average was about level 20 – this was a situation I had never seen in 12 years of playing Deal and Attack.

“…Fireball.”

-Kieek!

Before the creature brandishing its weapon could cling to me, I fired a fireball, turning it into a handful of ashes.

-Kirrrrr….
-Kyaak!
-Kiyaaak!

“…”
And as if that was a signal flare, goblins started creeping out from everywhere. They revealed themselves from every corner of the mine, inside wooden boxes, from the ceiling, and so on.

LV. 102

“…”
If there was anything unusual, it was that they were all over level 100. For mere low-level goblins, not even elite goblins or goblin kings, to exceed level 100 – there was certainly something going on.

-Kak!
-Kirrr!

“…”
When the leading one made some kind of hand signal, the other goblins moved in perfect unison accordingly. It seemed their intelligence had increased along with their heightened physical abilities due to their raised levels.

“Blast Wheel.”

To eliminate the goblins swarming from all directions at once, I created a circular wall of fire surrounding me, burning up the fearlessly charging creatures all at once.

-Ki, kieek!
-Kyarr!

“…”
The three surviving goblins showed bewildered gestures as if they hadn’t expected this. Then, instead of continuing to rush at me, they chose to flee towards the inner part of the mine.

“…”
I too slowly walked towards where they had fled, into the interior of the mine. The dampness and smell grew worse the further in I went.

-Ting!
-Tang!

“…!”
As I went deeper, illuminating the way with the light at the tip of my staff, another sound could be heard, like weapons clashing against each other.

“…”
The flickering of light, of torches, visible in the distance. Since stupid goblins wouldn’t use torches, that light must have been created by humans or some other intelligent beings.

As I got closer to the fire, the sound of metal friction grew louder, and human voices could be heard as well.

“Arwen! Heal quickly!”
“It’s no use! There are already too many of them!”
“What about our retreat?”
“It’s blocked!”

“…”
Arriving at the place where the firelight flickered, there was a group of three adventurers engaged in fierce combat with what looked like 20 goblins.

“Heal!”
“Damn, there’s no end to them…”
“I’m almost out of arrows!”

“…”
A classic party composition of swordsman, archer, and healer. Their levels weren’t low either, so they must be the adventurer party that the receptionist lady mentioned had left this morning after receiving the quest.

“C-Come at us all at once!”
“There are too many…”

The swordsman’s movements had noticeably slowed, probably from fighting for a long time without rest. Then one goblin stabbed a dagger into the tired swordsman’s shoulder.

“Ugh!”
“Mir! Are you okay?!”

“…”
The swordsman staggered back, and only the archer was left drawing her bowstring to keep the enemies at bay.
At this rate, they wouldn’t last even 10 minutes, let alone break through the encirclement.

“…”
Since exterminating the goblins in the mine was the quest objective anyway, I raised my staff with an expressionless face and deliberately made a loud noise by tapping the mine wall.

-Krrr?
-Kyaak!

“…”
The goblins all turned their heads at once towards this new sound from behind them. And four or five of them immediately changed their target to me and started charging like mad dogs.

“W-What?”
“Get out of the way! Hurry!”

The adventurer group had also noticed my presence. The swordsman clutched his shoulder where red blood was flowing and shouted at me as if screaming.

“Phew…”
But running away here, and from mere goblins at that, was nonsense. Instead, I boldly pointed my staff at the charging goblins and activated a skill.

“Blast Drive.”

Then, what was created at the tip of the staff was a red fireball. Growing to an enormous size while emitting intense heat, that fireball transformed into the shape of a dragon and swept through the mine interior.