As the timer finished I got ready to step through again, wondering how many rounds I would need to complete all up. So far it hadn’t been too hard but if the scale growth stayed the same as from the horned rabbit to the goblin then I could quickly end up in over my head.
Walking through I was greeted by the new familiar prompt advising me of this round's challenge.
Defeat the combatant to finish this round and enter a rest round. Current opponent: Adult Goblin warrior
Looking across I could see a goblin that was five or six centimetres taller than the last one, and a little more filled out. Clearly this would be a stronger version of the last goblin, but my main concern is the armour and shield it was holding along with a long knife.
The armour looked like it was made of scrap metal bent into shape with some uneven hammering, and the shield was a piece of wood with some metal bands strengthening it, but even looking like this if it was made by a crafting skill it would be much stronger then it looked.
Realising this was going to be a long fight I hoped that this goblin wasn’t as fast as the young one, if I could try wearing it down instead thanks to my healing in theory I should be able to out last it and eventually win. I didn’t have the exact numbers, and a feeling from the skill was more based on how much I did while it was active and passively it didn’t consume a lot once the mana pattern was filled, but I still didn’t want to risk running dry in this fight.
Sooner started sooner finished as my parents would say, so I started walking over slowly to the goblin warrior, watching to see if it would respond, and as soon as I got close to reaching range it lifted its shield to cover its upper body and held the knife off to the side clearly ready to slash at me if I made a move.
Weighing up my options I decide the best choice is to just try to take advantage of being able to heal and sustain myself both actively and with short rest bursts. Stepping forward I snap a kick at the shield, quickly pulling my leg back the moment I feel it connect. As I stand on my foot I can feel something has been hurt, not broken but definitely not comfortable, and send a pulse of immolation through the foot to heal it up.
I can see the goblin was moved back by the kick but it hasn’t hurt the shield and definitely didn’t do any real damage to the goblin. As I am thinking of how to get around the shield, suddenly the goblin rushes at me, catching me in the stomach with the shield knocking my breath out. As I fall down I feel the goblins' weight come down on top of the shield pushing me down, and suddenly there is a hot burning pain in my side where it managed to stab me, while the shield has my right arm pinned against my chest.
Grabbing its arm as it tries to stab at me again I focus on holding the arm up while using immolate to seal up the wound in my side, as I feel it pulling back together and the pain starts to reduce I let go of the goblins arm and grab my hand over its face. As I pour mana out of my hand igniting my hand I hear screaming and wonder who is watching, before I realise it's my own voice I am hearing.
Cutting off the mana and focusing on the several stab wounds now on my side, I stop screaming and realise I have completely burned away the goblins head. As my wounds close up and I feel myself cross the fifteen second mark so my smokes start helping repair things I realise I have a system prompt waiting for my attention that must have happened during combat.
Skill development: Due to using a skill manually in enough combat encounters with no outside influence you have developed a new unique skill. Unique skills do not contain ranks, and are instead limited by your ability to use them well only. Unique skills are directly tied into your core and cannot be taught to others.
Skill unlocked: Ignition Skill description: Coat a limb in mana to infuse strikes and grapples with a cleansing flame. This has a base cost of 35 mana, plus additional mana is consumed as the flame replenishes. Flame strength is based on flame refinement level. Mana is refunded when skill is deactivated based on flame returned to the caster
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I guess that is one good thing that came out of what I can only call a panic attack. Taking deep breaths I realised just how little combat experience I had, thankfully this dungeon seemed to be at a level where I could fix that before I ended up failing as part of the settlement's defence or worse.
Climbing up and pushing the goblin off me I slowly shifted around, feeling my smoke clearing up a lot of the abuse my body just went through. As much as that was useful I can’t rely on it too strongly, if there had been a second goblin it could have engaged me before it could kick in.
Moving toward the door I could feel the start of a plan forming, particularly with this new skill, where I need to engage both my body enhancement and ignition before striking as fast and often as physically possible. The main drawback to this would usually be that your going to take a beating to deliver one if you aren’t perfectly faster then every response, however as I can heal so long as I have mana, or fifteen seconds to start resting and my smoke is stocked up, I can take advantage of that to in theory not suffer the usual drawbacks to this fighting style.
Stepping through the doorway again I am deeply looking forward to some water and fruit, and as much as I now want the extra time to recover mentally and ensure my decision to firm up how I am approaching these fights if the rewards are improving in line with difficulty I really don’t want to miss out.
Adult Goblin warrior killed: 200 exp gained
Sitting a jug of water and a bowl I threw some mixed fruit onto my bench. I accepted the reward and quickly reached out to grab it. This time its a small bag, before I open it I check the system window to see what it is in case it's dangerous or might cause harm.
Reward granted: Adult Goblin Core
Cores were meant to be relatively common in monsters that could ascend into the Wild Blood, but they often broke when the creature died meaning they weren’t often seen outside of an adventurer's hunt or a card crafters shop.
Focusing on the core name a little bit of further information prompted, giving me a good idea that the core would be useful to someone but not particularly valuable.
Adult Goblin Core: Core can be consumed by a core bearer to grow their own core and help direct its development, or it can be forged either into a related card or used as part of creating a new card.
Cool, so a lot more useful than the skill piece but functionally just a slightly higher tier version of the same drop. Once again I am hopeful we have a card crafter or someone else who can make good use of these items, I know we have had a few more settlers join as we get built up so worst case I think I would just have to hold onto them if I wanted them used locally.
Checking the timer I still have most of my rest period, so I settle down to nibble on some fruit, have some water, and meditate to help restore my mana faster. I wanted to try out my new skill but honestly I don't want to risk getting my mana to low before this next fight. If things keep scaling up the way they have been I might even get to level eleven soon, which would be great to increase my pool maximums to help with my mana gem project.
Getting up and stepping through I am starting to feel confident, from how the last few fights scaled up I am expecting to fight something difficult but if I go in heavy and fast I should be good. The worst case is I may need to use the extra rest time instead of getting the bonus round reward, but the experience itself is so valuable that I really can’t complain even if I miss a reward.
Defeat the combatants to finish this round and enter a rest round. Current opponent: Small Kobold war party (1x Kobold mage, 1x Kobold warrior, 1x Zarkling)
“The fuck is a kobold or zarkling? I gotta start reading more” sighing I look up to see just how bad this is about to be and wondering if I should just exit now and count my blessings for the rewards earned so far.