"Captain, how many goblins have we killed today?" Shas asked nonchalantly, a blade of grass dangling from his mouth.
"Not many. About ten or so," Gall said, pulling a string of goblin left ears from his Waterproof Bag.
"All these ears together aren’t even worth one Interdiate Beast Core. HIC," the Dwarf, Guremang, let out a drunken hiccup, swaying on his feet.
"Get away from ," the Mage, Balrog, said, waving his hand in disgust.
"Maybe we’ll run into a Fearso Claw Bear around the next corner. Then we can finally get promoted to Black Iron. To be honest, I’ve had enough of these filthy, noisy shorties," Gall said, adjusting his backpack and rolling his shoulders.
"How about this? Next ti, we just knock the goblins out, cut off their ears and calves, but don’t kill them," Shas suggested excitedly. "Imagine how pissed the next Adventurers who find them will be."
"Now that’s a constructive suggestion," the Dwarf laughed heartily.
"Alright, everyone stay sharp. We might actually run into a Fearso Claw Bear," Gall reminded his team.
Rounding a large tree, Shas suddenly felt sothing was off. His Ranger’s keen senses put him on high alert. "Captain..."
"What is it, Shas?" Gall asked, turning his head.
"Need to find a spot to take care of business?" Guremang guffawed.
"Gob—goblins! A lot of goblins!" Shas stamred, quickly drawing an Arrow.
Gall whipped his head around and was stunned to see at least twenty goblins rising from the trees and bushes. He had never faced so many goblins at once, and his contempt for them began to fade. "Everyone, be careful!"
"Haha, more ears for us!" The Dwarf tucked away his wineskin and took out his Double-bladed Axe.
But what greeted Gall’s party of four were a dozen or so black, spherical objects.
"Are those rocks?" Gall yelled. He was just about to warn his teammates when, in the next second, everything changed.
BOOM! BOOM! A series of explosions engulfed the four of them. By the ti Gall ca to his senses, he saw that they were all covered in bloody wounds. Shas’s arm was especially bad.
"Guremang, don’t let them throw any more of those things!" he shouted, just as he spotted a goblin with a Longsword charging at him.
"You little bastards! Your Dwarf grandpa is gonna chop you to pieces!" Guremang yelled, charging toward the goblins like a clay pot rolling down a hill.
But he was imdiately tripped by two Double Ball Flying Ropes thrown by the goblins, becoming a literal rolling pot.
"How is everyone?" Gall asked, fending off the attacks of a red-eyed goblin.
Although this goblin’s Sword Techniques were terrible, it was very strong and quite agile. Every ti Gall blocked one of its Horizontal Sweeps, it would imdiately swing its sword again. The impacts made the web of Gall’s thumb go numb, but he continued to block with all his might.
Shas took out a Healing Potion and chugged it down, then tried to draw his bow again. "I’m fine. These goblins are weird as hell."
"O Fla Elental Spirit, I beseech you, attack them!" Balrog chanted quickly. His Magic Staff glowed with a faint red light as a Rocket Technique shot into the midst of the goblins.
BANG! The Rocket Technique exploded, knocking one goblin down.
Balrog continued chanting, but his eyes widened in horror as another dozen or so black spheres were thrown his way.
Guremang struggled to free himself from the entanglent of the flying ropes and was about to Charge again, but the black spheres forced him to make an ergency evasion. He rolled backward on the spot, once again turning into a rolling pot.
BOOM! BOOM! The explosions rang out again. Gall now had multiple injuries, and the red-eyed goblin in front of him was also covered in wounds, with a particularly large gash on its waist.
But he imdiately noticed sothing was wrong. The wounds on this jabbering goblin were rapidly closing and healing. In an instant, the gash on its waist had almost completely disappeared.
’What is going on?’ Gall was shocked. He had never fought a goblin like this before. Facing this creature that never stopped screeching, he suddenly had a thought: ’What in the world are you even saying?’
Shas struggled to draw his bow. His Leather Armor was tattered and he was covered in blood. The Healing Potion he’d just drunk had temporarily stabilized him, but then a sharp pain shot through his shoulder—a Crossbow Arrow was embedded in it.
"This is bad, we have to retreat! Sothing’s wrong with these goblins!" Gall shouted, using all his strength to shove the goblin in front of him away. "Balrog, Wall of Flas!"
Hearing his captain’s shout, the Dwarf scrambled up from the ground, straightened his crooked helt, and ran backward with his Double-bladed Axe in hand.
By the ti Gall and Shas got clear, Balrog had finished his chant. A Wall of Flas several ters wide shot up into the air, cutting off the goblins’ pursuit.
"Let’s go!" Gall yelled to Balrog, but the Mage imdiately let out a pained cry and collapsed to the ground.
Gall spun around to see a goblin that had appeared from nowhere, holding a pair of Short Blades that it had just plunged into the small of Balrog’s back.
"Save..." Gall didn’t get to finish his sentence. He saw several more black spheres flying over the wall of fire toward him, leaving him no choice but to turn and run.
In the blink of an eye, the three of them had vanished, leaving only the Mage, Balrog, wailing on the ground.
...
Shire wasn’t particularly happy about successfully repelling the Adventurer party.
This encounter had revealed quite a few problems.
First was reconnaissance. He hadn’t sent out scouts in advance, which was why they’d only discovered the enemy when they were practically on top of them. Next ti, he would need to have Broken Tooth scout ahead of the main group.
Second was the issue of daily training. Although this was the first ti they had used the Hand Grenade Fruits en masse, their throws had been too scattered and their aim unfocused, reducing the weapon’s lethality. Furthermore, they had used up thirty Hand Grenade Fruits in this one battle. At this rate, their stockpile was completely insufficient.
Finally, their equipnt was too poor. Red Eyes, who had been granted Basic Power, Basic Endurance, the Blessing of the Evil God, and Regeneration, had only managed to fight the enemy Swordsman to a standstill. If he’d had so protection, perhaps he could have done better.
’This is still not good enough. It’s this much trouble just dealing with a regular party of Adventurers. What will happen when we encounter the veteran Adventurers who are looking for the Fearso Claw Bear?’
The strength the enemy had displayed led Shire to conclude that they were, at best, a common group of Adventurers. He sighed, deciding to put the troop training plan on the agenda as soon as he returned and finished exploring the Fortress.
The wall of fire quickly vanished, and Shire saw the Mage crawling on the ground.
He walked over to the man with his subordinates. "Who are you people?"
"Get away! You filthy bugs from the dirt holes! Don’t touch !" Balrog said with disgust.
Shire frowned and kicked him in the face.
Feeling his face being soiled, Balrog’s facial muscles twitched. He ground his teeth and scread, "How dare you get dirty! Elental Spirit, I..."
SPLAT. Shire grabbed a handful of mud and shoved it into the man’s mouth.
"Ptooey, ptooey! I’ll kill you!" Balrog shouted, spitting out the mud, looking completely deranged.
"Common Adventurers are so rude," Shire muttered with a pout, not even bothering to call up the man’s status panel before having Red Eyes finish him off.
"Clean up. We’re leaving imdiately," Shire commanded.
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