Young Warrior

Young Warrior (若い戦士) is a supporting character in Goblin Slayer Side Story: Year One, elevated to deuteragonist, an Adventurer who registered on the same day as Goblin Slayer.

Appearance
Young Warrior is a young man with yellow disheveled hair. He wears grey plate armor over his chest and shoulders, and carries a sword on a scabbard attached on his left hip.

In the manga, Young Warrior erroneously has red hair.

Personality
Young Warrior starts off as a proud and immodest individual, having a very romanticized ideal of Adventurers as so many rookies do. When shopping at the Smith's shop, he immediately set his sights on the most powerful equipment available and stated his intention of killing high level monsters, despite only being a newly registered Adventurer. This feeling of invincibility lasted until his fledgling Party was attacked by an adult Rock Eater, dissolving the Party. The event and loss of his love, changed him, Young Warrior would mature and become for safety driven and focus more on getting everyone home alive above romanticized spectacle.

Young Warrior is known for being very friendly towards his fellow Adventurers. In his rookie days, he was constantly asking fellow rookies to join his Party, but only for "awesome quests". After his first Party's dissolution, he still retains his friendly personality, but now is more accepting of trying smaller and safer quests. Also, whenever fellow Adventurers would insult Goblin Slayer, he would be among the first alongside Witch to defend him.

Year One Volume 1
Soon after registering as an Adventurer, Young Warrior went to Smith's shop looking for powerful equipment despite not listening to the Smith's advice. When another newly-registered Adventurer entered the shop, he proposed they go on an Adventure together, but was rebuffed as the Adventurer stated he was only interested in slaying Goblins, which Young Warrior was not interested in.

Shortly after, he and Half-Elf Ranger managed to form a four-person Party with other Rookies and met early success. Returning from a successful quest in some ruins, Young Warrior suggested slaying a Dragon, but was overruled by his party members since they were still beginners and had no where near the experience to pull it off. Tempering his enthusiasm, the party unanimously agreed to take a Goblins Slaying Quest which was already being handled by Goblin Slayer.

Teaming up with Goblin Slayer, the party killed the three Goblins trying to raid a farm and rescued a lamb. Young Warrior offered Goblin Slayer a spot in his party, but was bluntly rebuffed as he still wished to continue slaying Goblins. As Young Warrior tried to convince Goblin Slayer there was more fun to be had elsewhere, a Goblin attacked Half-Elf Ranger but she was saved thanks to Goblin Slayer. While Young Warrior and the rest of his party were grateful, Goblin Slayer's ruthless nature towards Goblins and his sudden dissecting of the Goblin put them off and they decided it was best to leave him be.

Later, Young Warrior and his party later went to slay Blobs in an abandoned gold mine. After assuring Half-Elf Ranger they would get the job done, the party was caught off guard by the sudden appearance of a Rock Eater which had taken Half-Elf Ranger's body in its jaws and swiftly taken Dwarf Warrior's arm. Young Warrior attempted to save half-Elf Ranger, but Monk pulled him out of the mine and had to punch him out to make him realize she was already dead and gone. The rest of the party survived the encounter, but with Half-Elf Ranger's demise, Young Warrior became traumatized and Dwarf Warrior's career ending injuries caused the dissolution of the Party.

Distraught, Young Warrior drowned his sorrows with alcohol at the tavern, blaming himself for Half-Elf Ranger's death. However, after a quest is offered for any Adventurer to slay the Rock Eater, Young Warrior volunteered to join in the hunt but Guild Girl tried to dissaude him given his previous traumatic encounter and on the grounds he was solo now and without a Party. Heavy Warrior however, seeing his desire to avenge his lost love, had offered him to come along as a temporary party member.

In the cave, the Rock Eater caused many blobs to swarm in order to attack the Adventurers so they would make noise and thus become easy prey for the Rock Eater who needed sound to locate them. As Druid Girl was about to be attacked by the acidic slimes but Young Warrior, remembering Half-Elf Ranger's death, sprang into action saving her and ran away from her to lure the Rock Eater away from the others. Using himself as bait, the Rock Eater sprang out of the ground to kill him but Young Warrior was able to land a critical wound on the Rock Eater but also knocking him out in the process. The wound he caused allowed the specialists and Spearman to finish the beast off. After waking up at the Temple of the Earth Mother, Heavy Warrior told Young Warrior that although he wasn't the one who killed the Rock Eater, he was the one to deal the first critical blow. Young Warrior acknowledged to himself that he did all he could and that would have to be enough to avenge Half-Elf Ranger.

Later outside the guild, Young Warrior told Goblin Slayer of his plans to go solo like him for a while and try to rebuild his career and confidence. Before leaving, he informed Goblin Slayer that the Adventurers of the Guild had given Goblin Slayer his now famous title.

Year One Volume 2
For his part in taking down the Rock Eater, Young Warrior was promoted to Obsidian rank.

Despite his intended desire to go solo for awhile, Young Warrior immediately ran into some barrier he wasn't expected like how hard solo Adventuring was, and the problem with being illiterate. Young Warrior noticed a party of rookies intending on mapping an old mine giving him painful flashbacks especially after they though about going into the caves without proper preparation. He advised them to exercise caution before entering a cave, and after some convincing, Martial Artist got him to accept accompanying them since, even though he was a rookie like them, he still had a bit more experience.

Acting as the rookies' impromptu guide, Young Warrior helped them slay oncoming Goblins as the Professor worked to map the abandoned mine. Once the remaining Hobgoblin was killed, he noticed that Martial Artist was in a state of shock from the battle and went to consul her. He told Martial Artist that it was okay to be scared and not everything goes as planned the first time; she would get another chance as long as she was alive.


 * Note: Events in this point occur only in the manga.

After this encounter, Professor saved the Party from a surprise attack launched by an Evil Wizard. Young Warrior immediately rallied with Marital Artist and Professor as Elf Acolyte and Dwarf Scout defended the rear. With their aid he was able to cut off the Wizard's hand, but with Dwarf Scout poisoning, and the odds being too even, Young Warrior ordered a retreat. Outside, safe and healed, the Party requested Young Warrior to become a permanent Party member which he did.
 * Note: End of Manga only events.

Young Warrior talked with another Adventurer about how Goblin Slayer had been frequenting a shack on the riverside belonging to Arc Mage, which Cow Girl was secretly listening on. He later accompanied Martial Artist and his new party for another Quest.

Year One Volume 3
Later, Young Warrior and Martial Artist asked Professor to teach them how to read, something Half-Elf Ranger promised to do for him, and though it was difficult he kept at it. During his studies, Young Warrior noted that Heavy Warrior was looking pretty overworked and brought it up to his Party who dismissed it as him "not getting enough sleep" and instead focused on the arrival of Examiner.

The next day, Young Warrior and his Party was approached by Scout Boy who was requesting help for Heavy Warrior who had collapsed. As the Professor deduced he just needed rest, Young Warrior volunteered to complete their Quest to repay Heavy Warrior for helping him with the Rock Eater. With his Party in agreement, Young Warrior and the rest journey to investigate the recent Earthquakes.


 * Note: Events in this point occur only in the manga.

Journeying into a cave and falling into a massive underground city, Young Warrior questions if the city had anything to do with the recent earthquakes. As he and his Party investigate, they are joined by Gold-Ranked Adventurer Barbarian who aids the Party against the surprise attack of Chaos worshipping Dark Elves riding atop large spiders.

Young Warrior and his Party were able to fend off the Dark Elves with Barbarian's help and learn about the Dark Elves' plans to revive an old powerful king and his undead army for their plans. This goes horribly wrong though as the Undead King slays the Dark Elves and attacks everyone around him, causing a massive collapse of the cave. Young Warrior and his Party just make it out in the nick of time, ending the Dark Elves' plot and stopping the earthquakes.
 * Note: End of Manga only events.

Later on, Young Warrior claimed a quest for his Party from Inspector who told him the requester would be very happy that Professor would be handling the quest.

Volume 1
When Goblin Slayer comes to the Guild requesting help with a Goblin Lord and his army of Goblins coming for Cow Girl's farm, Young Warrior is among the first to offer his assistance. During the raid, when Hobgoblins and Goblin Champions arrive, Young Warrior advises rookies and other mid-tier Adventures to step back and let the Veterans handle the situation.

Victorious, Young Warrior celebrates with the other Adventurers in the Guild Tavern. Like the rest, he is shocked to see Goblin Slayer remove his helmet and reveal his face to the world, despite being one of the few who had seen his face when they first became Adventurers years ago.

Equipment

 * Sword: Young Warrior carries a long sword into battle, enjoying the idea of being a sword wielding hero just like the many stories he's hear growing up.

Trivia

 * Young Warrior is actually canonically the first Adventurer to have ever seen Goblin Slayer unmasked, being in Smith's shop with him when he first bought the now iconic helmet.