At a close distance, the Air Bullet was strong enough to break bones and crush skulls. It was also as fast as Leyla’s arrows. The only downside was that the Air Bullet’s force was inversely proportional to the distance from the target. The farther the target, the weaker the impact. And Xavier became acutely aware of this drawback with every bullet he conjured, quite literally, out of thin air.
Like Leyla had joked, it was nothing short of performing a magic trick.
Solely relying on magic and fate wouldn’t keep him alive either. He had to practice and fine-tune the manifestation of Air Bullets, his aim, and throw.
Xavier used Air Bullets a total of five times against the group of Inferior Infected before he noticed that the energy hoarded near his stomach was drained. He couldn’t sense the total amount of energy consumed accurately but Xavier could roughly gauge that five Air Bullets used a quarter of his stored energy.
20 Air Bullets before I’m out of energy. That is quite a lot. But I don’t know how long it takes to replenish my used-up energy. Does it even replenish like Stamina? Where is that energy coming from either way? Is it in the air around me?
Xavier was exhilarated about being able to use magic – to a certain extent. But linking the Spell Card brought forth various questions that had to be answered sooner or later.
Fortunately, Xavier was not in a rush. He could use Air Bullet more than a dozen times before he was out of Energy, and he had Leyla by his side. Leyla’s aim was impeccable. She was exactly what Xavier needed to deal with the Goblins near the intersection of the familiar street on the hill.
“I will take a quick look at the Goblin community. After that, we will deal with the Goblins in my street, okay?” Xavier asked rhetorically before he made his move. He didn’t even wait for Leyla’s answer. “Why do you even ask if you don’t listen, either way?” She grumbled in a low voice but followed soon after.
Her eyes were trained on Xavier, who was much calmer than she expected him to be. As an Archer, she had been trained to remain calm and composed in all situations. She was a specialist at emptying all distractive thoughts from her mind to focus solely on the competition – or the hunt.
But Xavier wasn’t trained by an expert like Leyla. In fact, Xavier had been quite ordinary. He helped out a lot in the village’s community and was known as a kind, but cheeky child from a young age, but that was already it. So it was quite surprising that the same cheeky child had become a calm and composed young man, who dealt with the end of the world like it was a little surprise.
Xavier had no idea what Leyla was thinking about him. In all honesty, he had not even given it much thought in the first place.
He was only focused on his task and stalked silently in the direction of the intersection on the main street and glanced to the right where the street went up the hill.
Xavier couldn’t see the group of Goblins that carried the blazing boar corpse just yet. That was more than enough for Xavier to focus his attention on the roundabout located in the center of the tiny village. And there he found them; a horde of green humanoid monsters. But that was not the thing that surprised him.
What surprised him was what they had done to the village’s main street. The pesky intruders had gathered all the cars they could find and formed a neat little metal picket fence around their camp. Xavier could only wonder how they managed to drag all the cars and put them around in a circle if just dragging the boar's corpse took them hours.
That meant they had exceptional teamwork and lifted heavy weight through shared strength, much like that of ants.
He took the cover of a nearby tree to hide himself and craned his neck, standing up on his toes to get a good look inside their base.
And there he saw a few goblins holding hammers and nails, working hard to align the wooden planks. They were building a hut it seemed. It looked like they were here to stay.
They’re really here. Fuck this… And there are far more than expected! Wait, what is that?!
Xavier’s eyes locked onto a large blue mass that hovered above the roundabout’s inner isle like a flat, horizontal disc. The blue mass looked like liquid that rippled as gusts of air brushed against it. It was as if somebody had carved a sliver out of the ocean’s surface, turned it upside down and held it above their base with the help of invisible ropes.
That was an absurd way of describing it but then he had just conjured bullets made of air. Nothing was absurd anymore. In fact, Xavier feared that absurdity would become the new norm soon enough.
Dozens of Goblins stood in a circle below the blue mass, and it didn’t take long before Xavier realized what the blue mass might actually be.
More tiny little Goblins fell out of the blue mass. They got up on their feet, looked around and squealed loudly, raising their weapons high into the air. Watching more Goblins emerge from the blue mass felt weird, supernatural even, in a sense.
Of course, it is supernatural. Goblins are not supposed to exist, idiot! Is that a portal…one of those Gates mentioned in the first few messages from yesterday? Or is that a Monster Spawn Point? Since there are only Goblins, it might be a Monster Spawn Point…But why does it feel like a fricking dungeon from MMORPGS….what the hell…
Xavier wasn’t really happy about the things he saw in the center of the village. It was not a good sign if more Goblins kept popping out of the portal like popcorn.
First Custom Monster Gate has been discovered. Hidden Mission can now be accessed!
“Hidden Mission?” Xavier narrowed his eyes. His gaze drifted to Leyla, whose eyes were trained on the Monster Gate.
You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.
“T-that…was not there before…I-I think…”
“Eh, okay. Did you obtain a Hidden Mission just now?” Xavier asked Leyla, who could hardly tear her attention away from the Monster Gate.
“Hidden Mission? No. Did you receive some sort of mission? What does it say?”
Xavier tried thinking about the Hidden Mission and its content, but nothing happened. No new message popped up in front of him.
“Access Hidden Mission!” He tried again, hoping for some sort of response.
At last, a message popped up in front of him.
[Hidden Mission – Goblin Slayer]
Hard
Destroy the Custom Monster Gate
Bonus
1) Exterminate 200 Goblins [0/200]
2) Eradicate the Pest of Goblins like a True Goblin Slayer
[20H:59M:09S] left until the Gate is stabilized.
Reward: 50 Soul Essences, +Uncommon Card, +[Hidden]
Penalty upon failure: Goblin Horde Incursion
–5000 Goblins, 100 Goblin Warriors, 10 Goblin Shamans, 1 Goblin Champion–
–
Do you wish to accept the Hidden Mission?
Hmm? Killing the Goblins seems feasible. I would have tried my best to do that sooner or later either way. But how do I destroy the Gate? Is that possible? Well, probably only until the Gate is stabilized. What happens if I cannot destroy the Gate before it’s stabilized? And how do I do that, in the first place?
Numerous questions flashed through Xavier’s mind and he didn’t have a single answer. Fortunately, he knew that some of his questions related to the changes in this world were answered. Even if the answers were not always reliable, Xavier didn’t really have much of an option.
[Once anchored, Gates are insatiable and vulnerable. To stabilize Gates, the monsters that emerge from it will have to nourish it shortly after. Once stabilized, Gates act as doors. Everyone can step through them freely, crossing realms easily.]
The thought of thousands of Goblins emerging from a stabilized Monster Gate didn’t seem that enticing. There was also the possibility of stronger, folklore monsters emerging from the Gate once it reached a stable state.
But if the Gate is unstable right now, how can Goblins pass through it? The Gate has to be nourished to stabilize it, so the Goblins are forced to feed it. They want to invade us after all, I guess. So they must use some means to allow some weak-ass Goblins to step through the unstable Gate. Does that mean I can destroy the Gate by eradicating all Goblins? Will that be enough? No. It shouldn’t be. The countdown continues to move down and the Goblins are not doing anything to nourish it right now. Oh?!
[20H:59M:01S] left until the Gate is stabilized.
[20H:59M:11S] left until the Gate is stabilized.
Xavier noticed that the countdown displayed on the Hidden Mission’s description moved up by 10 seconds as another Goblin emerged from it. More Goblins emerged on the isle of the roundabout and the countdown continued to increase by 10 seconds.
Okay, Okay. So every Goblin increases the instability of the Gate a little. That means I will have more time to deal with the Goblins as more of them emerge. That is some fucked up logic, but I dig it.
Even without any reward, Xavier figured that he had to deal with the Goblins and the Monster Gate sooner or later, either way. He would most probably be slapped with a penalty upon failure whether he accepted the Hidden Mission or not. Therefore, Xavier decided to accept the Hidden Mission and to show his parents all the notifications he received once he was back at home.
Together with his family, Xavier was confident that they could come up with a proper plan to deal with the Goblin community and the Monster Gate.
[Do you wish to accept the Hidden Mission?]
Yes Xavier thought, determination flickering in his eyes.
[Hidden Mission has been accepted.]
[As the first Inferior Lifeform within a radius of 1000km to accept the Hidden Mission, you’ve been granted a special privilege until it concludes.]
[Privilege [Goblin Hunter]: Increases drop-rate when hunting Goblins. ]
The privilege sounded like a fine reward. He was not sure to what extent the drop-rate would increase but anything would be great. Xavier didn’t have the luxury to reject any kind of advantage.
Xavier tried to access the mission information just with a thought to see if he could open and close the mission details at will. It seemed to work just fine, giving him something to go on.
“Let’s start moving, Leyla,” He said with a sense of urgency in his voice.
Xavier had yet to show Leyla the content of the Hidden Mission. He didn’t want to worry her just yet. It was more than enough if one person was worried to death in the middle of a Goblin invasion. Leyla had to stay calm, otherwise, her arrows would miss the targets.
“O-okay.”
Xavier pulled Leyla to the intersection and they slowly climbed up the hill right after. They moved quickly, and it didn’t take long before the duo encountered the group of Goblins that was still trying to defend the blazing boar corpse against the increasing number of Infected.
Did they kill the boar for food or to nourish the Monster Gate?
Xavier was not sure, but it was certainly a good thing that the Inferior Infected were trying to eat the blazing boar. He was also not certain why the Inferior Infected focused more on the dead boar than the Goblins, but Xavier noticed something else relatively soon.
“The Goblins don’t turn into Infected,” Leyla pointed out what Xavier had realized as well.
Some of the Goblins had bite and scratch marks spread all over their bodies. However, none of them showed signs of turning into an Infected. If anything, the bite and scratch marks merely angered the Goblins.
“It might be their immune system or something like that. I have no idea. Goblins are not creatures from Earth. Common rules of survival might not necessarily apply to them,” Xavier answered with a shrug, while Leyla added, “Logic doesn’t apply to anything that happened since yesterday night…”
That was indeed true. Unfortunately, there was no time to chat. They had to hunt a bunch of Goblins!
****
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